Methods and systems for recommending actors

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for updating, using a specific process that reduces the resource requirements and ensures recommendation relevancy, a particular database that is used for recommending actors. A media guidance application may infrequently search a set of irrelevant actors for an actor who can be classified as a promising actor. The media guidance application may add any promising actor to a set of promising actors. The media guidance application may more frequently search the set of promising actors for an actor who can be classified as a relevant actor. Upon identifying a relevant actor, the media guidance application may include the relevant actor in a set of relevant actors. The media guidance application may then recommend actors to a user based on actors included in the set of relevant actors.

BACKGROUND

In currently available media systems, a recommendation system maymonitor information associated with actors to determine which actors torecommend. Given the plethora of actors, it is resource intensive tocontinuously monitor information associated with a huge data set ofactors when selecting actors that are worth recommending. On the otherhand, if the recommendation system monitors changes in actor informationinfrequently, the recommendation system may miss out on recommendingactors who have recently become prominent and thus may not perform aswell as other recommendation systems. Thus, current recommendationsystems can be improved upon to optimize both the computational resourcerequirements and system performance. Furthermore, in some instances, auser may only be interested in content segments in which a recommendedactor appears and in which the actor's quality of acting (e.g., good,bad, mediocre) is a pre-specified quality of acting. Current systems arelimited to providing a user with content segments in which a selectedactor appears and thus can be improved upon to provide content that ismore customized to a user's preferences.

SUMMARY

Therefore, systems and methods are disclosed herein for updating, usinga specific process that reduces the resource requirements and ensuresrecommendation relevancy, a particular database that is used forrecommending actors. For example, a media guidance application mayinfrequently search a set of irrelevant actors for an actor who can beclassified as a promising actor. The media guidance application may addany promising actor to a set of promising actors. The media guidanceapplication may more frequently search the set of promising actors foran actor who can be classified as a relevant actor. Upon identifying arelevant actor, the media guidance application may include the relevantactor in a set of relevant actors. The media guidance application maythen recommend actors to a user based on actors included in the set ofrelevant actors. By recommending actors from a smaller set of relevantactors, rather than a larger set of all available actors, the mediaguidance application requires fewer resources. Further resource savingsis achieved by monitoring the set of irrelevant actors and the set ofpromising actors at different frequencies. By more frequently monitoringthe set of promising actors, the media guidance application ensures thatthe media guidance application is not delayed in recommending an actorwho has recently become relevant.

Furthermore, systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing auser with segments of content where the segments include a given actorand where the quality of acting of the given actor in the segments ofcontent matches a user-specified quality of acting. For example, a usermay wish to view media asset clips in which a given actor appears and inwhich the given actor acts poorly. The media guidance application mayreceive, from a user, a request for a media asset segment, where therequest specifies an actor and a level of acting associated with theactor. For example, the user-specified level of acting associated withthe actor may be below a threshold level of acting that is required fora given level of acting to be categorized as good acting. The mediaguidance application may determine a media asset in which theuser-specified actor plays a leading role. The media guidanceapplication may then determine a segment of the media asset in which theactor appears and in which a level of acting associated with the actormatches the user-specified level of acting. The media guidanceapplication may generate for display the segment.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may be configured torecommend actors based on entries in a particular database. For example,the media guidance application may access a data set of irrelevantactors (e.g., C list actors and D list actors) to determine whether anyone of actors in the data set has undergone a change in status and cannow be considered to be a promising actor (e.g., a B list actor). Asreferred to herein, the term “irrelevant actors” refers to actors whoare moderately famous or popular in their respective industries. Asreferred to herein, the term “relevant actors” refers to actors who aremost famous in their respective industries. As referred to herein, theterm “promising actors” refers to actors who are up and coming.“Promising actors” are more famous than “irrelevant actors” but not asfamous as “relevant actors.”

Specifically, the media guidance application may access an irrelevantactors database to determine whether the irrelevant actors databaseincludes a promising actor, where the irrelevant actors databaseincludes a first plurality of entries and where each entry of the firstplurality of entries includes an actor identifier field and an actorscore field. The actor identifier field and the actor score fieldassociated with a given entry provide descriptive information about anactor associated with the given entry. ****Values corresponding to theactor identifier field may be any unique identifier that can be used toidentify an actor. Values corresponding to the actor identifier fieldcan be, but are not limited to, actor name, actor user name, actornickname, actor ID number and any unique string of characters. The term“actor score,” as used herein, is defined to mean a qualitative orquantitative indicator of an actor's degree of fame and/or relevance.For example, actor score may be fuzzy logic variables such as“moderately famous,” “famous” and “very famous.” The actor score may bea numerical value (e.g., five) on a predefined scale (e.g., scaleranging from zero to ten where zero corresponds to no fame and tencorresponds to maximum degree of fame). As an illustrative example, theirrelevant actors database may include an entry that has values “ChrisPratt” and “six” corresponding to the actor identifier field and theactor score field respectively. The irrelevant actors database mayinclude another entry that has values “Famke Janssen” and “four”corresponding to the actor identifier field and the actor score fieldrespectively. The irrelevant actors database may include yet anotherentry that has values “Jeff Daniels” and “three” corresponding to theactor identifier field and the actor score field respectively.

The media guidance application may retrieve two threshold values thatdefine a minimum actor score required to be classified as a promisingactor and a minimum actor score required to be classified as a relevantactor. Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve a firstthreshold value, where the first threshold value corresponds to aminimum actor score required for including an actor in a promisingactors database. For example, the media guidance application may accessa threshold parameters data structure to retrieve the first thresholdvalue. As a matter of example, the media guidance application mayretrieve a value of five corresponding to the first threshold value. Thepromising actors database may include a second plurality of entries,where each entry of the second plurality of entries includes the actoridentifier field and the actor score field.

As an illustrative example, promising actors database may include anentry that has values “Chris Messina” and “six” corresponding to theactor identifier field and the actor score field respectively. Thepromising actors database may include another entry that has values“Emily Blunt” and “six” corresponding to the actor identifier field andthe actor score field respectively. The promising actors database mayinclude yet another entry that has values “Rose Byrne” and “seven”corresponding to the actor identifier field and the actor score fieldrespectively. The media guidance application may retrieve a secondthreshold value, where the second threshold value corresponds to aminimum actor score required for including an actor in a relevant actorsdatabase. For example, the media guidance application may access athreshold parameters data structure to retrieve the second thresholdvalue. As a matter of example, the media guidance application mayretrieve a value of seven corresponding to the second threshold value.

The media guidance application may search, at a low frequency, theirrelevant actors database for an actor with a score that matches theactor score range corresponding to a promising actor. The media guidanceapplication may, upon identifying an actor in the irrelevant actorsdatabase who should be classified as a promising actor, delete theidentified actor from the irrelevant actors database and include theidentified actor in the promising actors database. Specifically, themedia guidance application may search, at a first frequency, theirrelevant actors database for an actor associated with a first entryhaving a value corresponding to the actor score field that is betweenthe first threshold value and the second threshold value. The mediaguidance application may retrieve, based on the searching, the firstentry. For example, the media guidance application may query (e.g., byusing database management languages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL oranother suitable language) the irrelevant actors database every sixmonths for an actor who is associated with an actor score that isbetween five and seven.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may use SQLSELECT command (e.g., SELECT * FROM irrelevant actors WHERE actor scoreBETWEEN five AND seven) to perform the query. Following from theprevious example, the media guidance application may receive, becausethe actor score associated with the actor Chris Pratt is six, the entryassociated with actor Chris Pratt as a result of the query. In someembodiments, the query result may include a unique or specificidentifier associated with the entry associated with actor Chris Pratt.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, as aresult of the query, a pointer or link to the entry associated withChris Pratt, which the media guidance application may use to retrievethe entry associated with “Chris Pratt.” The media guidance applicationmay update the promising actors database by including the first entry inthe promising actors database. The media guidance application may updatethe irrelevant actors database by deleting the first entry from theirrelevant actors database. For example, the media guidance applicationmay delete the entry associated with Chris Pratt from the irrelevantactors database and include the entry associated with “Chris Pratt” inthe promising actors database.

The media guidance application may update the scores of actors in thepromising actors database and the media guidance application may search,at a higher frequency, the promising actors database for an actor with ascore that matches the actor score range corresponding to a relevantactor. The media guidance application may, upon identifying an actor inthe promising actors database who should be classified as a relevantactor, include the identified actor in the relevant actors database.Specifically, the media guidance application may update the actor scorefield corresponding to the second plurality of entries based on apre-defined factor. In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, basedon which the actor score field associated with a given entry of thesecond plurality of entries is updated, may be a score assigned to agiven actor, corresponding to a given entry, by a review source. Forexample, the pre-defined factor may be an actor rating assigned to ChrisPratt by an online movie review sources (e.g., the Internet MovieDatabase, IMDb which is a comprehensive online database of informationrelated to movies, television programs, video games and other similarcontent).

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be number of media assets that the given actorhas acted in. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayincrease the actor score for given actor if the number of media assetsthat the given actor has acted in has increased. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a total number of movies that actorChris Pratt has acted in to date for determining Chris Pratt's actorscore. For example, the media guidance application may determine, basedon comparing the total number of movies Chris Pratt acted in at thecurrent date with a total number of movies Chris Pratt had acted in at aprevious current date, that number of movies that Chris Pratt has actedin has increased from ten to thirteen. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may compute a new actor score for Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be popularity of a media assets in which thegiven actor has acted. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may increase the actor score for given actor if the givenactor has recently acted in a popular media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may determine, based on accessing a datastructure associated with actor Chris Pratt, that Chris Pratt hasrecently acted in the movie “Jurassic Park.” The media guidanceapplication may determine, based on a review associated with the movie“Jurassic Park,” that “Jurassic Park” is a popular movie. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may access anonline review website (e.g., Rotten Tomatoes) and retrieve a popularityindicator for “Jurassic Park” (e.g., audience rating of seventy-twopercent) that indicates “Jurassic Park” was popular. Accordingly, themedia guidance application may increase the actor score of Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be level of acting of the given actor. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may determine thatChris Pratt has recently acted in the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy.”The media guidance application may determine, based on natural languageprocessing of reviews associated with “Guardians of the Galaxy,” thatChris Pratt's acting in the movie was generally accoladed. The mediaguidance application may compute a new actor score based on thesefactors and update the entry associated with Chris Pratt. For example,the media guidance application may update value of the actor score fieldassociated with Chris Pratt to eight.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be popularity of the given actor. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may increase the actor scorefor given actor if popularity of the given actor has increased. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve an indicator ofactor popularity and based on the retrieved indicator of actorpopularity, compute a new actor score. As an illustrative example, themedia guidance application may access a website associated with ChrisPratt (e.g., Chris Pratt's official website) and retrieve a number ofpeople following the website. The media guidance application maydetermine, based on the number of people following the website, apopularity of the actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be salary of the given actor. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may increase the actor scorefor given actor if salary of the given actor has increased. In someembodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actor scorefield associated with a given entry of the second plurality of entriesis updated, may be number of pre-defined awards that the given actor hasreceived. For example, the media guidance application may determine anumber of pre-defined awards (e.g., Oscar, Golden Globe, Saturn awardand other similar awards) that Chris Pratt has won and compute an actorscore based on the number of awards won.

The media guidance application may search, at a second frequency, thepromising actors database to determine whether the promising actorsdatabase includes a relevant actor, where the second frequency isgreater than the first frequency. The media guidance application mayretrieve the second threshold value. The media guidance application maydetermine whether the value corresponding to the actor score fieldassociated with the first entry exceeds the second threshold value.Following from the previous example, the media guidance application mayretrieve a value of seven for the second threshold value. The mediaguidance application may query (e.g., by using database managementlanguages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitable language) thepromising actors database every month for an actor who is associatedwith an actor score that is greater than seven. Based on whether thequery results include the first entry, the media guidance applicationmay determine whether actor score associated with the first entryexceeds the second threshold value. Alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may execute a Boolean comparison function that returns atrue result upon determining that a given actor score is greater thanthe second threshold value to determine whether value of actor scorefield associated with the first entry exceeds the second thresholdvalue.

Following from the previous example, the media guidance application mayquery the promising actors database for all entries that are associatedwith actor scores greater than seven. The media guidance application mayreceive, because the actor score associated with the actor Chris Prattis eight, the entry associated with actor Chris Pratt as a result of thequery. Accordingly, the media guidance application may determine thatactor score associated with the entry corresponding to Chris Prattexceeds the second threshold value. The media guidance application may,in response to determining that the value corresponding to the actorscore field associated with the first entry exceeds the second thresholdvalue, update the relevant actors database to include the first entry.The media guidance application may include the entry associated with“Chris Pratt” in the relevant actors database.

In some embodiments, there may be a single database of actors, whereeach entry in the single database of actor includes an actor identifierfield, an actor score field and an actor status field. Possible valuesof the actor status field are irrelevant, promising and relevant. Themedia guidance application may, in manners described previously, search,at a first frequency, set of entries associated with value irrelevant inthe actor status field for an actor associated with an actor score thatis between a promising actor threshold score and a relevant actorthreshold score. The media guidance application may, in response toidentifying the actor associated with the actor score that is betweenthe promising actor threshold score and the relevant actor thresholdscore, update the value of the actor status field of the identifiedactor to promising. The media guidance application may update, based ona plurality of factors, actor scores of actors included in the singledatabase of actors. The media guidance application may search, at asecond frequency greater than the first frequency, set of entriesassociated with value promising in the actor status field for an actorassociated with an actor score that exceeds the relevant actor thresholdscore. The media guidance application may, in response to identifying anactor associated with an actor score that exceeds the relevant actorthreshold score, update the value of the actor status field of theidentified actor to relevant.

The media guidance application may receive a request for an actorrecommendation. The media guidance application may, in response toreceiving a request for an actor recommendation, provide the actorrecommendation based on entries in the relevant actors database. Themedia guidance application may receive, upon a user selecting aselectable “receive actor recommendations” option, a request from a userfor an actor recommendation. The media guidance application may thenrecommend an actor based on entries in the relevant actors database. Forexample, the media guidance application may recommend the actor ChrisPratt, who is now included in the relevant actors database, but notFamke Janssen, who is in the irrelevant actors database.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may search theirrelevant actors database for an actor with a score that matches theactor score range corresponding to a relevant actor. The media guidanceapplication may, upon identifying an actor in the irrelevant actorsdatabase who should be classified as a relevant actor, delete theidentified actor from the irrelevant actors database and include theidentified actor in the relevant actors database. Specifically, themedia guidance application may search, at the first frequency, theirrelevant actors database for a second actor associated with a secondentry having a value corresponding to the actor score field that exceedsthe second threshold value. The media guidance application may retrieve,based on the searching for the second actor associated with a secondentry, the second entry. The media guidance application may update therelevant actors database by including the second entry in the relevantactors database. The media guidance application may update theirrelevant actors database by deleting the second entry from theirrelevant actors database.

Following from the previous example where the second threshold value isseven, the media guidance application may query (e.g., by using databasemanagement languages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitablelanguage) the irrelevant actors database every six months for an actorassociated with an actor score greater than seven. As an illustrativeexample, the irrelevant actors database may include an entry with values“Dwayne Johnson” and “eight” corresponding to the actor identifier fieldand actor score field respectively. The media guidance application mayreceive the entry associated with actor Dwayne Johnson as a result ofthe query and responsively, the media guidance application may deletethe entry associated with Dwayne Johnson from the irrelevant actorsdatabase and include it in the relevant actors database instead.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may periodicallysearch the relevant actors database for actors who should no longer beclassified as relevant actors. Upon identifying, in the relevant actorsdatabase, an actor who should no longer be classified as a relevantactor, the media guidance application may move, based on the actor scoreassociated with the identified actor, the identified actor to either thepromising actors database or the irrelevant actors database.Specifically, the media guidance application may search, at a thirdfrequency, the relevant actors database for a third actor associatedwith a third entry having a value corresponding to the actor score fieldthat is less than the second threshold value. In some embodiments, thethird frequency may be less than the first frequency. In someembodiments, the third frequency may be greater than the secondfrequency. In some embodiments, the third frequency may be in betweenthe first frequency and the second frequency. Following from the examplewhere the second threshold value is seven, the media guidanceapplication may query the relevant actors database every three monthsfor an actor associated with an actor score of less than seven.

The media guidance application may retrieve, based on the searching forthe third actor associated with a third entry, the third entry. Themedia guidance application may determine whether the value correspondingto the actor score field of the third entry is less than the firstthreshold value. As an illustrative example, the relevant actorsdatabase may include an entry with values “Will Smith” and “six”corresponding to the actor identifier field and actor score fieldrespectively. The media guidance application may receive the entryassociated with actor Will Smith as a result of the query and determinewhether the actor score for Will Smith is less than the first thresholdvalue of five. For example, the media guidance application may execute aBoolean comparison function that returns a true result upon determiningthat a given actor score is less than the first threshold value. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive a “false” resultwhen the actor score for Will Smith (e.g., six) is compared with thefirst threshold value (e.g., five).

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that thevalue corresponding to the actor score field of the third entry is lessthan the first threshold value, update the irrelevant actors database byincluding the third entry in the irrelevant actors database. The mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the valuecorresponding to the actor score field of the third entry is not lessthan the first threshold value, update the promising actors database byincluding the third entry in the promising actors database. The mediaguidance application may update the relevant actors database by deletingthe third entry from the relevant actors database. In this instance, themedia guidance application may determine that the actor score associatedwith actor Will Smith is between the first and second threshold valuesof five and seven respectively. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may delete the entry associated with Will Smith from therelevant actors database and include it in the promising actors databaseinstead.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine anupdated actor score of an actor by computing a weighted average of actorscores assigned to the actor by various review sources. Specifically,the media guidance application may, when updating the actor score fieldcorresponding to a given entry of the second plurality of entries basedon the pre-defined factor, retrieve a first actor score assigned to agiven actor, corresponding to the given entry, by a first review source.The media guidance application may retrieve a first importance levelassociated with the first review source, where the first importancelevel is an indicator of how important inclusion of the first actorscore is in the computation of a new actor score corresponding to thegiven actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve an actor score of nine that has been assigned to ChrisPratt by the Internet Movie Database, an online review source. Theimportance level may be quantitative values of a scale of zero to four,where zero is corresponds to the lowest importance level. As a matter ofexample, the media guidance application may retrieve an importance levelof three from? the Internet Movie Database.

In some embodiments, the first importance level may be based onpopularity of the first review source. For example, importance level ofa given review source may be directly proportional to popularity of thegiven review source. In some embodiments, the first importance level maybe based on accuracy of the first review source. Some review sources maybe more accurate than other review sources. More accurate review sourcesmay be assigned greater importance levels than less accurate reviewsources. In some embodiments, the first importance level may be based onthe entity providing the first review source. The entity providing thefirst review source may include, but is not limited to, a corporation, aprivate individual (e.g., a movie buff blogger), a public personality(e.g., an acclaimed movie critic), or a social media group (e.g., asocial media group of novice movie reviewers). As a matter of example,an acclaimed movie critic may be given a greater importance level than amovie blogger. In some embodiments, the first importance level may bebased on a user preference. A review source that matches userpreferences may be given a higher importance level than a movie thatdoes not match user preferences. As a matter of example, the mediaguidance application may determine, based on accessing a user's webbrowsing history, that the user regularly visits the Internet MovieDatabase homepage and rarely visits the homepage of Rotten Tomatoes,another online review source. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may assign the Internet Movie Database a higher importancelevel than Rotten Tomatoes.

The media guidance application may retrieve a second score assigned tothe given actor by a second review source. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve a second importance level associated with thesecond review source, where the second importance level is an indicatorof how important inclusion of the second actor score is in thecomputation of the new actor score corresponding to the given actor andwherein the second importance level is less than the first importancelevel. As an illustrative example, the media guidance application mayretrieve an actor score of five that has been assigned to Chris Pratt byRotten Tomatoes, an online review source. Following from the examplewhere the importance level is defined on a scale of zero to four, themedia guidance application may retrieve an importance level of one forRotten Tomatoes.

The media guidance application may compute the new actor score, wherethe new actor score is a weighted average of the first actor score andthe second actor score and where the first actor score is weighted moreheavily than the second actor score. The media guidance application maydetermine, based on accessing a look-up table that defines therelationship between an importance level of a review source and aweighting factor for an actor score provided by the review source, aweighting factor for a given actor score. As an illustrative example,the media guidance application may determine that the actor scoreassigned by the Internet Movie Database has a weighting factor ofseventy-five percent and the actor score assigned by Rotten Tomatoes hasa weighting factor of twenty-five percent. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may compute an updated actor score for Chris Prattusing the formula “actor score =[(seventy five-percent * IMDb actorscore)+(twenty-five percent * Rotten Tomatoes actor score)]”. In thisinstance, the media guidance application may compute an actor score ofeight for Chris Pratt. The media guidance application may update thevalue of the actor score field corresponding to the given entry to thenew actor score. For example, the media guidance application may updatethe value of the actor score field associated with Chris Pratt to eight.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role is the same as the most common roleof an actor that the user likes. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may, when providing the actor recommendation based onentries in the relevant actors database, determine a user associatedwith the request for the actor recommendation. The media guidanceapplication may determine a user associated with the request based on aunique identifier, such as a string of characters or bio-metric data(e.g., finger print, retina scan, voice recognition or other suitablebio-metric data), received from the user. As an illustrative example,the media guidance application may receive a user name “TD5774” from theuser and determine, based on accessing a user profile associated withuser name “TJ5774,” that the user is Teddy Jones. Additionally and/oralternatively, the media guidance application may determine a userassociated with the request based on an identifier associated with userequipment (e.g., a device identifier (ID), Internet protocol (IP)address and other suitable identifiers) on which the recommendationrequest is received. The media guidance application may determine theidentity of the user by retrieving, based on the identifier associatedwith the user equipment, a unique user identifier associated with theuser equipment. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on the device ID of a user equipment, a log-in IDassociated with a user who uses the user equipment. The media guidanceapplication may then access a data structure (e.g., user's profile)associated with the user identifier to determine the identity of theuser.

The media guidance application may access a media consumption historydata structure, associated with the user, to determine a first actorthat the user prefers. The media guidance application may identify themedia consumption history data structure (e.g., the user's profile)associated with the user based on a unique identifier associated withthe user. The Media consumption history data structure of the user mayinclude information about the user's media consumption habits. Forexample, the media consumption history data structure may includeinformation about the user's preferred media assets, genre, actor,director, producer, content sources, review sources and other similarinformation. As a matter of example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on a list of preferred actors included in user TeddyJones' user profile, that user Teddy Jones likes the actor LeonardoDiCaprio.

The media guidance application may determine a prominent role associatedwith the first actor, where the prominent role associated with the firstactor is the most common role of the first actor. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a data structure associated with thefirst actor to retrieve a table that includes all media assets in whichthe first actor has featured and a role associated with the first actorcorresponding to each media asset included in the table. The mediaguidance application may filter (e.g., using a filter function or aquery function) the retrieved table based on different roles associatedwith the actor (e.g., leading actor, supporting character, cameoappearance and other suitable roles) and determine a number of mediaassets corresponding to each role associated with the actor. The mediaguidance application may then select the role that is associated withthe highest number of media assets of the table as the prominent roleassociated with the first actor.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may retrieve,for Leonardo DiCaprio, a table that includes ten movies (e.g., aLeonardo DiCaprio movie table) as the complete table of all movies inwhich Leonardo DiCaprio has featured. The media guidance application mayfilter the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table” for movies in which LeonardoDiCaprio played a supporting character. For example, the filtering mayyield two results and accordingly, the media guidance application maydetermine that two media assets of the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table”are associated with the supporting character role. Similarly, the mediaguidance application may filter the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table” formovies in which Leonardo DiCaprio was the lead actor. The filtering mayyield six results and accordingly, the media guidance application maydetermine that six media assets of the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table”are associated with the leading actor role. The media guidanceapplication may update the value of a counter associated with thesupporting character role to two and value of a counter associated withthe leading actor role to six. The media guidance application may repeatthis process for all other roles associated with Leonardo DiCaprio inthe Leonardo DiCaprio movie table. Once counters for all the roles havebeen updated, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., byexecuting a function that determines a counter with the maximum value)the counter with the maximum value. The media guidance application mayselect the role corresponding to the counter with the maximum value asthe prominent role. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on the Leonardo DiCaprio movie table, that the countercorresponding to leading actor role has the maximum value andaccordingly, the media guidance application may determine that LeonardoDiCaprio's prominent role is leading actor.

The media guidance application may determine a plurality of actors,included in the relevant actors database, where the prominent roleassociated with each actor of the plurality of actors matches theprominent role of the first actor. The media guidance application mayrecommend a second actor of the plurality of actors. For example, eachentry in the relevant actors database may include an additionalprominent role field, where the value of the prominent role field of agiven entry is the most common role corresponding to the actorassociated with the given entry. The media guidance application mayquery, in manners discussed previously in relation to querying databasesfor actors associated with a specific range of actor score, the relevantactors database for entries that are associated with the prominent roleof the first actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may query the relevant actors database for actors who areassociated with a value of leading actor in the prominent role field. Asan illustrative example, the media guidance application may receiveentries associated with actors Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and JenniferLawrence as a result of the query. The media guidance application mayrandomly select an actor returned by the query for recommendation to theuser. For example, the media guidance application may recommend actorChris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may use aprobability distribution to determine the prominent role associated withan actor. The probability distribution may be either discrete orcontinuous. For example, in a given media asset, there are very fewleading actors (male protagonist, female protagonist, antagonist) andvery few background actors. Most of the actors may be supportingcharacters. As an illustrative example, the probability distribution ofthe different unique roles in a media asset (leading actor, supportingactor, background actor), where the different roles are orderedaccording to importance, may be a normal distribution. The mediaguidance application may, when determining a prominent role of a givenactor, compute an average rank percentage of the given actor. The mediaguidance application may compute the rank percentage of the given actorin a given media asset using the formula (rank of actor in an orderedlist of all actors in the given media asset/total number of actors inthe media asset). The media guidance application may compute an averageof rank percentages of the given actor in various media assets todetermine the average rank percentage of the given actor. The mediaguidance application may then retrieve a pre-defined role probabilitydistribution that provides probabilities of various roles in mediaassets. As an illustrative example, the role probability distributionmay be a normal distribution where the most important roles are at thetail end of the distribution and the least important roles are at thehead end of the distribution. The media guidance application may computethe cumulative probability range associated with each role in roleprobability distribution. For example, the cumulative probability rangeassociated with roles leading actor, supporting actor, background actormay be zero to seven percent, thirty to seventy percent and ninety-threeto hundred percent respectively. As an illustrative example, if theaverage rank percentage of the given actor is three percent, the actorwould be classified as a lead actor.

Specifically, the media guidance application may, when determining theprominent role associated with a first actor, determine a first mediaasset in which the first actor appears. For example, the media guidanceapplication may access a data structure associated with the first actorto retrieve a table that includes all media assets in which the firstactor has featured. As a matter of example, the first actor may beJennifer Lawrence and she may have appeared in two movies (e.g., “TheHunger Games” and “Silver Linings Playbook”). The media guidanceapplication may select “The Hunger Games” as the first media asset. Themedia guidance application may retrieve a first credit list associatedwith the first media asset, where the first credit lists all actorsappearing in the first media asset. The media guidance application maydetermining a first position of the first actor in the first credit listand a total number of actors in the first credit list. For example, themedia guidance application may retrieve the credit list for “The HungerGames” from a data structure associated with “The Hunger Games.” Forexample, the data structure may be located at the media guidance datasource. The media guidance application may determine, based on thecredit list for “The Hunger Games,” that there is a total of twenty-twoactors in “The Hunger Games” and Jennifer Lawrence's rank in the creditlist is one. The media guidance application may compute a first rankpercentage of the first actor based on the first position of the firstactor in the first credit list and the total number of actors in thefirst credit list. For example, the media guidance application maycompute the first rank percentage using the formula (rank of first actorin first credit list/total number of actors in the first credit list).As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may computethe first rank to be four-and-half percent in this case.

The media guidance application may determine a second media asset inwhich the first actor appears. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine “Silver Linings Playbook” as the second mediaasset. The media guidance application may retrieve a second credit listassociated with the second media asset, where the second credit listsall actors appearing in the second media asset. The media guidanceapplication may determine a second position of the first actor in thesecond credit list and a total number of actors in the second creditlist. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve thecredit list for “Silver Linings Playbook” and determine that there is atotal of twenty-eight actors in “Silver Linings Playbook” and JenniferLawrence's rank in the credit list is two. The media guidanceapplication may compute a second rank percentage of the first actorbased on the second position of the first actor in the second creditlist and the total number of actors in the second credit list. The mediaguidance application may compute, in manners described previously inrelation to computing the first rank percentage, a second rankpercentage of seven-point-one percent for Jennifer Lawrence.

The media guidance application may compute, based on the first rankpercentage and the second rank percentage, an average rank percentage ofthe first actor. In this example, the media guidance application maycalculate an average rank percentage of five-point-eight. The mediaguidance application may retrieve a role probability distribution wherethe role probability distribution provides probabilities of variousroles in media assets. As an illustrative example, the role probabilitydistribution may be a pre-defined normal distribution where the mostimportant roles (e.g., lead actor) are at the tail end of thedistribution and the least important roles (e.g., background actor) areat the head end of the distribution. The media guidance application maydetermine a first role associated with the role probability distributionthat has a cumulative probability range that includes the average rankpercentage of the first actor. The media guidance application may selectthe first role as the prominent role. As a matter of example, thecumulative probability range associated with roles leading actor,supporting actor, background actor may be zero to seven percent, thirtyto seventy percent and ninety-three to hundred percent respectively. Inthis example, the media guidance application may determine, because theaverage rank percentage of Jennifer Lawrence (e.g., five-point-eightpercent) is included in the cumulative probability range associated withleading actor role (e.g., zero to seven percent), that the prominentrole of Jennifer Lawrence is lead actor.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and most common genre are the sameas the most common role and most common genre of an actor that the userlikes. Specifically, the media guidance application may, further, whenrecommending the second actor of the plurality of actors, determine aprominent genre associated with the first actor, where the prominentgenre associated with the first actor is the most common genreassociated with the first actor. The media guidance application maydetermine, in manners described previously in relation to determiningthe prominent role associated with the first actor, the prominent genreassociated with the first actor. As an illustrative example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the prominent genre associatedwith Leonardo DiCaprio is drama. The media guidance application maydetermine an actor of the plurality of actors, where the prominent genreassociated with the actor of the plurality of actors matches theprominent genre associated with the first actor. The media guidanceapplication may select the actor of the plurality of actors as thesecond actor.

For example, each entry in the relevant actors database may include anadditional prominent genre field, where the value of the prominent genrefield of a given entry is the most common genre corresponding to theactor associated with the given entry. The media guidance applicationmay query, in manners discussed previously in relation to queryingdatabases for actors associated with a specific range of actor score,the entries corresponding to the plurality of actors for an actor thatis associated with the prominent genre of the first actor. The mediaguidance application may select the actor of the plurality of actors asthe second actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may query the entries corresponding to the plurality ofactors (e.g., Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and Jennifer Lawrence) foractors who are associated with a value of drama in the prominent genrefield. The prominent genre associated with Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khanand Jennifer Lawrence may be drama, romantic comedy and actionrespectively. In this example, the media guidance application mayreceive the entry associated with actor Chris Pratt as a result of thequery and recommend actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and most common media assetindustry are the same as the most common role and most common mediaasset industry of an actor that the user likes. The term “media assetindustry,” as used herein, is defined to mean an entertainment industryinvolved in producing and distributing movies. Media asset industry mayinclude, but is not limited to, geographically distinct film industriessuch as cinema of the United States (generally referred to asHollywood), cinema of the United Kingdom, cinema of China, cinema ofIndia (Bollywood), cinema of Nigeria, cinema of Persia and othersuitable film industries. Media asset industry may include, but is notlimited to, different streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, AmazonInstant video and HBO. Media asset industry may include, but is notlimited to, different production companies such as Time Warner, Sony,the Walt Disney Company and NBCUniversal.

Specifically, the media guidance application may further, whenrecommending the second actor of the plurality of actors, determine aprominent media asset industry associated with the first actor, wherethe prominent media asset industry associated with the first actor isthe most common media asset industry associated with the first actor.The media guidance application may determine, in manners describedpreviously in relation to determining the prominent role associated withthe first actor, the prominent media asset industry associated with thefirst actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the prominent media asset industry associated withLeonardo DiCaprio is Hollywood. The media guidance application maydetermine an actor of the plurality of actors, where the prominent mediaasset industry associated with the actor of the plurality of actorsmatches the prominent media asset industry associated with the firstactor. The media guidance application may select the actor of theplurality of actors as the second actor.

For example, each entry in the relevant actors database may include anadditional prominent media asset industry field, where the value of theprominent media asset industry field of a given entry is the most commonmedia asset industry corresponding to the actor associated with thegiven entry. The media guidance application may query, in mannersdiscussed previously in relation to querying databases for actorsassociated with a specific range of actor score, the entriescorresponding to the plurality of actors for an actor that is associatedwith the prominent media asset industry of the first actor. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may query theentries corresponding to the plurality of actors (e.g., Chris Pratt,Shah Rukh Khan and Jennifer Lawrence) for actors who are associated witha value of Hollywood in the prominent media asset industry field. Theprominent media asset industry associated with Chris Pratt, Shah RukhKhan and Jennifer Lawrence may be Hollywood, Bollywood and Hollywoodrespectively. In this example, the media guidance application mayreceive the entries associated with actors Chris Pratt and JenniferLawrence as a result of the query and recommend either Chris Pratt orJennifer Lawrence.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and most common level of acting arethe same as the most common role and most common level of acting of anactor that the user likes. The term “level of acting,” as used herein,is defined to mean a qualitative or quantitative indicator of an actor'squality of acting. For example, level of acting may be fuzzy logicvariables such as “bad,” “mediocre,” “good” and “phenomenal.” The actorscore may be a numerical value (e.g., three) on a pre-defined scale(e.g., a scale ranging from zero to ten where zero corresponds to worstpossible quality of acting and ten corresponds to best possible qualityof acting).

Specifically, the media guidance application may further, whenrecommending the second actor of the plurality of actors, determine aprominent level of acting associated with the first actor, where theprominent level of acting associated with the first actor is the mostcommon level of acting associated with the first actor. The mediaguidance application may determine, in manners described previously inrelation to determining the prominent role associated with the firstactor, the prominent level of acting associated with the first actor. Asan illustrative example, the media guidance application may determinethat the prominent level of acting associated with Leonardo DiCaprio isexcellent. The media guidance application may determine an actor of theplurality of actors, where the prominent level of acting associated withthe actor of the plurality of actors matches the prominent level ofacting associated with the first actor. The media guidance applicationmay select the actor of the plurality of actors as the second actor.

For example, each entry in the relevant actors database may include anadditional prominent level of acting field, where the value of theprominent level of acting field of a given entry is the most commonlevel of acting corresponding to the actor associated with the givenentry. The media guidance application may query, in manners discussedpreviously in relation to querying databases for actors associated witha specific range of actor score, the entries corresponding to theplurality of actors for an actor that is associated with the prominentlevel of acting of the first actor. The media guidance application mayselect the actor of the plurality of actors as the second actor. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may query theentries corresponding to the plurality of actors (e.g., Chris Pratt,Shah Rukh Khan and Jennifer Lawrence) for actors who are associated witha value of excellent in the prominent level of acting field. Theprominent level of acting associated with Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khanand Jennifer Lawrence may be excellent, good and mediocre respectively.In this example, the media guidance application may receive the entryassociated with actor Chris Pratt as a result of the query and recommendactor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and gender are the same as the mostcommon role and gender of an actor that the user likes. From theprevious example, the media guidance application may recommend actorChris Pratt because both most common role of both Chris Pratt andLeonardo DiCaprio is leading actor and both Chris Pratt and LeonardoDiCaprio are male. In this instance, the media guidance application maynot recommend actor Jennifer Lawrence, who is female. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may recommend another actorwho shares any combination of features with an actor that the userlikes.

In some aspects, the media guidance application is configured to providesegments of content that are associated with a pre-specified quality ofacting. The media guidance application may receive a request from a userfor a media asset clip in which a given actor acted poorly.Specifically, the media guidance application may receive, from a user, arequest for a media asset segment. The request may specify an actor anda level of acting associated with the actor, where the level of actingassociated with the actor is below a threshold level of acting that isrequired for a given level of acting to be categorized as good acting.The threshold level of acting that is required for a given level ofacting to be categorized as good acting may corresponding to apre-defined minimum value that is required for given level of acting tobe categorized as good acting. The media guidance application mayretrieve, by accessing a default parameters data structure, thethreshold level of acting. As a matter of example, for the case wherequality of acting is quantified on a scale of zero to ten with zerobeing the worst possible quality, the media guidance application mayretrieve a value of six corresponding to the threshold level of acting.For example, the media guidance application may receive a user inputthat indicates that the user would like to view a movie clip associatedwith actor Chris Pratt, where Chris Pratt's level of acting is “poor.”The media guidance application may access a look-up table that defines arelationship between a qualitative indicator of level of acting and aquantitative indicator of level of acting, to convert the qualitativeindicator of level of acting into a quantitative value. Following fromthe example where quality of acting is quantified on a scale of zero toten, the media guidance application may determine, based on the look-uptable, that the “poor” level of acting corresponds to values zerothrough three.

The media guidance application may search a data structure associatedwith the actor for a first media asset in which the actor plays aleading role. For example, the media guidance application may access adatabase (e.g., a media content data source database) where each entryincludes information about a movie, contributors to the movie and rolesof the contributors in the movie (e.g., lead actor, supporting actor,director). The media guidance application may then query the database,using database management languages (e.g., SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL oranother suitable language), for an entry where actor Chris Pratt is acontributor and where the role of Chris Pratt is lead actor. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may use the SQLSELECT command to perform this query. The media guidance application mayreceive an entry in which actor Chris Pratt is listed as a lead actor asa result of the query. In some embodiments, the query result may includea unique or specific identifier associated with the entry in which actorChris Pratt is listed as a lead actor. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may receive, as a result of the query, a pointer orlink to the entry in which actor Chris Pratt is listed as a lead actor,which the media guidance application may use to retrieve the entry. Asan illustrative example, the media guidance application may receive themovie “Jurassic Park” in which Chris Pratt appear as a lead actor.

The media guidance application may determine, based on metadataassociated with the first media asset, a plurality of segments of thefirst media asset in which the actor appears. For example, the mediaguidance application may parse metadata associated with “Jurassic Park”to retrieve the start time and end time of each segment of “JurassicPark” in which Chris Pratt appears. The start time and end time may betime codes associated with frames in the media asset. For example, thetime code may be in the format (hour:minute:second:frame) where the(hour:minute:second) portion indicates an amount of time elapsed fromthe start point of the media asset and (frame) identifies a frameassociated with point in time indicated by the (hour:minute:second)portion. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve timecodes (00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) as the start time and end timerespectively of a first segment of “Jurassic Park” in which Chris Prattappears. The media guidance application may retrieve time codes(00:15:00:00) and (00:18:00:00) as the start time and end timerespectively of a second segment of “Jurassic Park” in which Chris Prattappears.

The media guidance application may identify a segment of the first mediaasset in which the given actor has acted poorly based on keywords in areview associated with the first media asset. Specifically, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a review associated with the firstmedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may access asource that provides information about media assets to retrieve a reviewassociated with the first media asset. A source that providesinformation about media assets can be, but is not limited to, onlinedatabases providing information related to media assets, social mediaplatform, blogs and articles. For example, the media guidanceapplication may access the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to retrieve areview associated with “Jurassic Park.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may use a reviewprovided by a review source that the user prefers when identifying asegment of content associated with pre-specified quality of acting.Specifically, the media guidance application may, when retrieving areview associated with the first media asset, determine, based onaccessing a data structure associated with the user, a review sourcepreferred by the user. The media guidance application may access thereview source preferred by the user to retrieve the review associatedwith the first media asset. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine, based on accessing the user's web browsing history, thatthe user regularly visits the website of Rotten Tomatoes but rarelyvisits the website of Internet Movie Database. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may select Rotten Tomatoes as the review sourcepreferred by the user. The media guidance application may then accessthe Rotten Tomatoes website to retrieve a review associated with“Jurassic Park.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may parse the reviewfor a portion of the review that is associated with the first segment.For example, the media guidance application may determine the portion ofthe review discussing Chris Pratt's first appearance in the movie“Jurassic Park” refers to the first segment with start and end timecodes (00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) respectively. The media guidanceapplication may then extract, from the portion of the review, certainkeywords that are frequently used to describe actor performances (e.g.,“weak,” “wooden,” “stagy,” “fake,” “realistic,” “layered” and otherfrequently used words for describing quality of acting). ****

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may analyze thecontext of a given keyword, using natural language processing techniquesfor example, to determine an entity that the given keyword is referringto. As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may usetext mining techniques (e.g., named entity recognition, coreference,sentiment analysis, semantic analysis, etc.) to determine context of agiven keyword. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the words “unrealistic” and “wooden” were used to describe ChrisPratt's acting in the first segment with start and end time codes of(00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) respectively. The media guidanceapplication may determine, based on keywords included in the review, afirst level of acting associated with the actor in a first segment ofthe plurality of segments. As a matter of example, the media guidanceapplication may use natural language processing to determine a degree ofpositivity corresponding to the keywords included in the review. Themedia guidance application may then access a look-up table that definesthe relationship between a given degree of positivity and acorresponding level of acting to retrieve the first level of actingassociated with the actor.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, whendetermining the first level of acting based on keywords included in thereview, access a data structure that contains a score corresponding toeach keyword of a plurality of keywords and determine scorescorresponding to the keywords included in the review. The media guidanceapplication may compute, based on the scores corresponding to thekeywords included in the review, the first level of acting associatedwith the actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may use a formula that averages scores associated withkeywords to compute the first level of acting in the first segment. Themedia guidance application may access a look-up table containingnumerical values corresponding to different keywords to determine ascore associated with a given keyword. As an illustrative example, alook-up table may contain values, corresponding to keywords, on a scaleof zero to ten, where a higher value corresponds to a higher quality ofacting. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve valuesof two and three corresponding to the keywords “unrealistic” and“wooden” respectively. Accordingly, the media guidance application maycompute a level of acting of two-and-a half for Chris Pratt's acting insegment of “Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of(00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) respectively.

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thefirst level of acting with the user-specified level of acting, whetherthe first level of acting associated with the actor in the first segmentmatches the user-specified level of acting. The media guidanceapplication may, in response to determining that the first level ofacting associated with the actor in the first segment matches theuser-specified level of acting, generate for display the first segment.For example, the media guidance application may determine, based oncomparing computed level of acting (e.g., two-and-a-half) with the levelof acting received from the user (e.g., “poor” acting corresponding torange of zero through three level of acting), that Chris Pratt's actingin segment of “Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of(00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) respectively matches the user-specifiedlevel of acting. Accordingly, the media guidance application may displaythe segment of “Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of(00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) respectively to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, upon receivinga request for segments of content that are associated with pre-specifiedquality of acting, provide segments from popular movies only.Specifically, the media guidance application may, when searching thedata structure associated with the actor for the first media asset,retrieve a media asset popularity threshold score, where the media assetpopularity threshold score corresponds to a minimum score required forany media asset to be categorized as a popular media asset. As anillustrative example, popularity score may be defined on a scale of zeroto ten, with zero corresponding to the lowest popularity and tencorresponding to the highest popularity. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve (e.g., by accessing a default parameters data structure) amedia asset popularity threshold score of seven.

The media guidance application may retrieve a popularity scoreassociated with a given media asset included in the data structureassociated with the actor. Following from the previous example where themedia guidance application retrieved “Jurassic Park” as a movie in whichChris Pratt appears, the media guidance application may retrieve apopularity score associated with “Jurassic Park.” As a matter ofexample, the media guidance application may access review source IMDband retrieve a popularity score of eight for “Jurassic Park.” The mediaguidance application may determine whether the popularity scoreassociated with the given media asset exceeds the media asset popularitythreshold score. The media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the popularity score associated with the given mediaasset exceeds the media asset popularity threshold score, select thegiven media asset as the first media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may execute a Boolean comparison function thatreturns a “true” result upon determining that a given media assetpopularity score is greater than the media asset popularity thresholdscore. In this case, the media guidance application may, responsive toreceiving, upon comparing popularity score of “Jurassic Park” with themedia asset popularity threshold score, a “true” result, select“Jurassic Park” as a movie from which to present to the user segmentassociated with actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be configured toprovide segments of content that are associated with both apre-specified quality of acting and a characteristic that is of interestto the user. Specifically, the media guidance application may, whendetermining the plurality of segments of the first media asset in whichthe actor appears, determine, based on metadata associated with thefirst media asset, a second segment of the first media asset in whichthe actor appears. The media guidance application may determine, basedon metadata associated with the first media asset, a plurality ofcharacteristics associated with the second segment. As an illustrativeexample, the media guidance application may determine, in mannersdiscussed previously, that Chris Pratt appears in a segment with thestart time code and end time code of (00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00)respectively. The media guidance application may parse metadataassociated with the segment with the start time code and end time codeof (00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00) respectively for characteristicsassociated with the segment. For example, the segment with the starttime code and end time code of (00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00)respectively may be a scene where Chris Pratt's character is chased by adinosaur in a jungle. Accordingly, the media guidance application mayretrieve “jungle,” “action,” “chase” and “dinosaur” as characteristicsassociated with the segment.

The media guidance application may determine, based on accessing a datastructure associated with the user, a media asset preference of theuser. The media asset preference of the user may be one of a genre, anevent, a character, a second actor and a setting. For example, a userprofile associated with the user may include a media asset preferencesof the user. As a matter of example, the user profile associated withthe user Teddy Jones may include media asset preferences such as action(genre), Leonardo DiCaprio (actor) and urban landscapes (setting). Themedia guidance application may determine, based on comparing theplurality of characteristics associated with the second segment with themedia asset preference of the user, whether a characteristic associatedwith the second segment matches the media asset preference of the user.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may execute afunction that iteratively queries a list of media asset preferencesincluded in Teddy Jones' user profile for each characteristic associatedwith the segment with the start time code and end time code of(00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00) respectively. For example, the mediaguidance application may query the media asset preferences list for“jungle,” “action,” “chase” and “dinosaur” to determine if the mediaasset preferences list includes any of those characteristics. The mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that thecharacteristic associated with the second segment matches the mediaasset preference of the user, include the second segment in theplurality of segments of the first media asset in which the actorappears. For example, the media guidance application may receive apositive result for the characteristic “action” and responsively, themedia guidance application may include the segment with start time codeand end time code of (00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00) respectively in alist of segments of “Jurassic Park,” associated with Chris Pratt, fromwhich to select a segment for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be configured toautomatically display, after displaying a segment of a media asset thatmatched the user-specified quality of acting, a playlist of other mediaasset segments in which the level of acing of a lead actor matches theuser-specified quality of acting. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may, subsequent to generating for display the first segment,automatically generate for display a playlist that includes a pluralityof media asset segments, where the level of acting associated with eachmedia asset segment of the plurality of media asset segments matches theuser specified level of acting. Following from the previous example,after displaying a segment from “Jurassic Park” in which Chris Prattacted poorly, the media guidance application may automatically display aplaylist of other movie segments in which Chris Pratt acted poorly.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include, in aplaylist automatically presented after display of a first media assetsegment that matched the user-specified quality of acting, another mediaasset segment that is associated with the same actor and also includedin the same media asset as the first media asset segment. Specifically,the media guidance application may, when determining a first media assetsegment to include in the playlist, select a second segment of theplurality of segments of the first media asset in which the actorappears. For example, the media guidance application may determine, inmanners discussed previously, Chris Pratt appears in a segment of“Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of (00:23:00:00) and(00:24:00:00) respectively. The media guidance application maydetermine, based on keywords included in the review, a second level ofacting associated with the actor in the second segment of the pluralityof segments. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve areview for “Jurassic Park” from a review source (e.g., Rotten Tomatoes)and determine a portion of the review discussing the segment of“Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of (00:23:00:00) and(00:24:00:00) respectively. As an illustrative example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the words “fake” and “ludicrous”were used to describe Chris Pratt's acting in the segment of “JurassicPark” with start and end time codes of (00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00)respectively. Accordingly, the media guidance application may, inmanners discussed previously in relation to determining a level ofacting, compute a level of acting of one for Chris Pratt's acting in thesegment of “Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of(00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectively.

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thesecond level of acting with the user-specified level of acting, whetherthe second level of acting associated with the actor in the secondsegment matches the user-specified level of acting. The media guidanceapplication may, in response to determining that the second level ofacting associated with the actor in the second segment matches theuser-specified level of acting, include the second segment in theplaylist. For example, the media guidance application may execute aBoolean comparison function to determine whether the computed level ofacting (e.g., one) matches the level of acting received from the user(e.g., “poor” acting corresponding to range of zero through three levelof acting). In this case, the media guidance application may, uponreceiving a true result from the Boolean comparison function, determinethat Chris Pratt's acting in the segment of “Jurassic Park” with startand end time codes of (00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectivelymatches the user-specified level of acting. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may include the segment of “Jurassic Park” withstart and end time codes of (00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectivelyin the playlist.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include, in aplaylist automatically presented after display of a first media assetsegment that matched the user-specified quality of acting, another mediaasset segment that is associated with the same actor as the first mediaasset segment but is from a different media asset. Specifically, themedia guidance application may, when determining a first media assetsegment to include in the playlist, search the data structure associatedwith the actor for a second media asset in which the actor plays aleading role. Following from the previous example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, in manners described previously, that ChrisPratt is a lead actor in the movie “Passengers.” The media guidanceapplication may determine, based on metadata associated with the secondmedia asset, a segment of the second media asset in which the actorappears. The media guidance application may retrieve a review associatedwith the second media asset. The media guidance application maydetermine, based on keywords included in the review associated with thesecond media asset, a second level of acting associated with the actorin the segment of the second media asset in which the actor appears.

As a matter of example, the media guidance application may determine, inmanners discussed previously, that Chris Pratt appears in a segment ofmovie “Passengers” with start and end time codes of (00:3:00:00) and(00:4:00:00) respectively. The media guidance application may retrieve areview for “Passengers” from a review source (e.g., Internet MovieDatabase) and determine a portion of the review discussing the segmentof “Passengers” with start and end time codes of (00:03:00:00) and(00:04:00:00) respectively. As an illustrative example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the words “unconvincing” and“trite” were used to describe Chris Pratt's acting in the segment of“Passengers” with start and end time codes of (00:03:00:00) and(00:04:00:00) respectively. Accordingly, the media guidance applicationmay, in manners discussed previously in relation to determining a levelof acting, compute a level of acting of one-and-a-half for Chris Pratt'sacting in the segment of “Passengers” with start and end time codes of(00:03:00:00) and (00:04:00:00) respectively.

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thesecond level of acting with the user-specified level of acting, whetherthe second level of acting associated with the actor matches theuser-specified level of acting. The media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that the second level of acting associated withthe actor matches the user-specified level of acting, include thesegment of the second media asset in the playlist. For example, themedia guidance application may execute a Boolean comparison function todetermine whether the computed level of acting (e.g., one-and-a-half)matches the level of acting received from the user (e.g., “poor” actingcorresponding to range of zero through three level of acting). In thiscase, the media guidance application may, upon receiving a true resultfrom the Boolean comparison function, determine that Chris Pratt'sacting in segment of “Passengers” with start and end time codes of(00:03:00:00) and (00:04:00:00) respectively matches the user-specifiedlevel of acting. Accordingly, the media guidance application may includethe segment of “Passengers” with start and end time codes of(00:03:00:00) and (00:04:00:00) respectively in the playlist.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include, in aplaylist automatically presented after display of a first media assetsegment that matched the user-specified quality of acting, another mediaasset segment that is associated with another lead actor who is similarto the lead actor in the first media asset segment. Specifically, themedia guidance application may, when determining a first media assetsegment to include in the playlist, determine another actor who shares apre-defined characteristic with the actor specified by the user. Thepre-defined characteristic may be, but is not limited to, a prominentgenre, career trajectory, gender, school of acting, award and degree ofpopularity. As a matter of example, the prominent genre associated withChris Pratt may be drama. The media guidance application may determine,in manners discussed previously in relation to determining prominentgenre of a given actor, that the prominent genre associated withLeonardo DiCaprio is also drama. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may select Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor similar to ChrisPratt.

The media guidance application may search a data structure associatedwith the another actor for a second media asset in which the anotheractor plays a leading role. The media guidance application maydetermine, in manners discussed previously, that Leonardo DiCaprio playsa leading role in the movie “Titanic”. The media guidance applicationmay determine, based on metadata associated with the second media asset,a segment of the second media asset in which the another actor appears.The media guidance application may retrieve a review associated with thesecond media asset. The media guidance application may determine, basedon keywords included in the review associated with the second mediaasset, a level of acting associated with the another actor in thesegment of the second media asset in which the another actor appears.The media guidance application may determine, in manners discussedpreviously, Leonardo DiCaprio appears in a segment of movie “Titanic”with start and end time codes of (00:55:00:00) and (00:57:00:00)respectively and compute a level of acting of one for LeonardoDiCaprio's acting in that segment.

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thelevel of acting associated with the another actor with theuser-specified level of acting, whether the level of acting associatedwith the another actor matches the user-specified level of acting. Themedia guidance application may, in response to determining that thelevel of acting associated with the another actor matches theuser-specified level of acting, include the segment of the second mediaasset in the playlist. For example, the media guidance application mayexecute a Boolean comparison function to determine whether the computedlevel of acting (e.g., one) matches the level of acting received fromthe user (e.g., “poor” acting corresponding to range of zero throughthree level of acting). In this case, the media guidance applicationmay, upon receiving a true result from the Boolean comparison function,determine that Leonardo DiCaprio's acting in segment of “Titanic” withstart and end time codes of (00:55:00:00) and (00:57:00:00) respectivelymatches the user-specified level of acting. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may include the segment of “Titanic” with start andend time codes of (00:55:00:00) and (00:57:00:00) respectively in theplaylist.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/oraspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in thisdisclosure. It should also be noted, the systems and/or methodsdescribed above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, othersystems and/or methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGS. 1A-1D show three data structures that the media guidanceapplication may access for determining actor recommendations, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may generate for display during presentation of segments ofcontent associated with pre-specified quality of acting, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a display screen for use inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 shows another illustrative example of a display screen for use inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining aset of relevant actors from which to recommend an actor to a user, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in recommending anactor based on entries in a particular database, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is another flowchart of illustrative steps involved inrecommending an actor based on entries in a particular database, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining aprominent genre of an actor, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providingsegments of content associated with a pre-specified quality of acting,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is another flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providingsegments of content associated with a pre-specified quality of acting,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in computing,based on keywords included in a review, a level of acting associatedwith an actor in a given segment, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The described systems and methods update, using a specific process thatreduces the resource requirements and ensures recommendation relevancy,a particular database that is used for recommending actors. For example,the media guidance application may infrequently search a set ofirrelevant actors for an actor who can be classified as a promisingactor. The media guidance application may add any promising actor to aset of promising actors. The media guidance application may morefrequently search the set of promising actors for an actor who can beclassified as a relevant actor. Upon identifying a relevant actor, themedia guidance application may include the relevant actor in a set ofrelevant actors. The media guidance application may then recommendactors to a user based on actors included in the set of relevant actors.By recommending actors from a smaller set of relevant actors, ratherthan a larger set of all available actors, the media guidanceapplication requires fewer resources. Further resource savings isachieved by monitoring the set of irrelevant actors and the set ofpromising actors at different frequencies. By more frequently monitoringthe set of promising actors, the media guidance application ensures thatthe media guidance application is not delayed in recommending an actorwho has recently become relevant.

The described systems and methods also provide a user with segments ofcontent where the segments include a given actor and where the qualityof acting of the given actor in the segments of content matches auser-specified quality of acting. For example, a user may wish to viewmedia asset clips in which a given actor appears and acts poorly. Themedia guidance application may receive, from a user, a request for amedia asset segment, where the request specifies an actor and a level ofacting associated with the actor. For example, the user-specified levelof acting associated with the actor may be below a threshold level ofacting that is required for a given level of acting to be categorized asgood acting. The media guidance application may determine a media assetin which the user-specified actor plays a leading role. The mediaguidance application may then determine a segment of the media asset inwhich the actor appears and in which a level of acting associated withthe actor matches the user-specified level of acting. The media guidanceapplication may generate for display the segment.

FIGS. 1A-1D show three data structures that the media guidanceapplication may access for determining actor recommendations, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be notedthat the data structures of FIGS. 1A-1D are used for illustrativepurposes and other data structures may be used to illustrate thedisclosed systems and methods. Specifically, information about mediaasset playback, interrupting events and segments of a media asset may bestored and categorized using other suitable data storage structures(e.g., linked lists, arrays) without departing from the scope of thisdisclosure. FIGS. 1A-1D depict the three different data structures (datastructure 102, data structure 104 and data structure 106) at four timetimes-time 100, time 150, time 160 and time 170, where time 100 precedestime 150, which in turn precedes time 160, which in turn precedes time170.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may be configured torecommend actors based on entries in a particular database. For example,the media guidance application may access data structure 102 (e.g., adata structure of irrelevant actors) to determine whether any one of theactors in data structure 102 has undergone a change in status and cannow be considered to be a promising actor (e.g., a B list actor). Upondetermining that a given actor in data structure 102 can be classifiedas a promising actor, the media guidance application may delete theentry associated with the given actor from data structure 102 andinclude it in data structure 104 (e.g., a data structure of promisingactors) instead. The media guidance application may access datastructure 104 to determine whether any one of the actors in datastructure 104 has undergone a change in status and can now be consideredto be a relevant actor (e.g., an A list actor). Upon determining that agiven actor in data structure 104 can be classified as a relevant actor,the media guidance application may delete the entry associated with thegiven actor from data structure 104 and include it in data structure 106(e.g., a data structure of relevant actors) instead. The media guidanceapplication may then recommend actors based on entries in data structure106. As referred to herein, the term “irrelevant actors” refers toactors who are moderately famous or popular their respective industries.As referred to herein, the term “relevant actors” refers to actors whoare most famous in their respective industries. As referred to herein,the term “promising actors” refers to actors who are up-and-coming.“Promising actors” are more famous than “irrelevant actors” but not asfamous as “relevant actors.”

Specifically, the media guidance application may access an irrelevantactors database to determine whether the irrelevant actors databaseincludes a promising actor, where the irrelevant actors databaseincludes a first plurality of entries and where each entry of the firstplurality of entries includes an actor identifier field and an actorscore field. As an illustrative example, at time 100, data structure 102may include entries 120, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130 and 132. Each entry indata structure 102 may include an actor ID 108 field and an actor score110 field. The actor identifier field and the actor score fieldassociated with a given entry provide descriptive information about anactor associated with the given entry. Values corresponding to the actoridentifier field may be any unique identifier that can be used toidentify an actor. Values corresponding to the actor identifier fieldcan be, but are not limited to, actor name, actor user name, actornickname, actor ID number and any unique string of characters.

The term “actor score,” as used herein, is defined to mean a qualitativeor quantitative indicator of an actor's degree of fame and/or relevance.For example, an actor score may be fuzzy logic variables such as“moderately famous,” “famous” and “very famous.” The actor score may bea numerical value (e.g., five) on a pre-defined scale (e.g., a scaleranging from zero to ten where zero corresponds to no fame and tencorresponds to maximum degree of fame). As an illustrative example, datastructure 102, at time 100, may include entry 120 that has values “ChrisPratt” and “six” corresponding to the actor ID 108 field and actor score110 field respectively. The data structure 102 may include another entry122 that has values “Famke Janssen” and “four” corresponding to theactor ID 108 field and the actor score 110 field respectively. Datastructure 102 may include yet another entry 124 that has values “JeffDaniels” and “three” corresponding to the actor ID 108 field and theactor score 110 field respectively.

The media guidance application may retrieve two threshold values thatdefine a minimum actor score required to be classified as a promisingactor and a minimum actor score required to be classified as a relevantactor. Specifically, the media guidance application may retrieve a firstthreshold value, where the first threshold value corresponds to aminimum actor score required for including an actor in a promisingactors database. For example, the media guidance application may accessa threshold parameters data structure, located at any of storage 508,media content source 616 and media guidance data source 618, to retrievethe first threshold value. As a matter of example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve a value of five corresponding to the firstthreshold value. The promising actors database may include a secondplurality of entries, where each entry of the second plurality ofentries includes the actor identifier field and the actor score field.As an illustrative example, at time 100, data structure 104 may includeentries 134, 136, 138 and 140. Each entry in data structure 104 mayinclude an actor ID 112 field and an actor score 114 field.

As an illustrative example, data structure 104 (i.e., promising actorsdata structure) may include entry 138 that has values “Chris Messina”and “six” corresponding to the actor ID 112 field and the actor score114 field respectively. The promising actors database may includeanother entry 134 that has values “Emily Blunt” and “six” correspondingto the actor ID 112 field and the actor score 114 field respectively.The promising actors database may include yet another entry 136 that hasvalues “Rose Byrne” and “seven” corresponding to the actor ID 112 fieldand the actor score 114 field respectively. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve a second threshold value, where the secondthreshold value corresponds to a minimum actor score required forincluding an actor in a relevant actors database. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a threshold parameters data structure,located at any of storage 508, media content source 616 and mediaguidance data source 618, to retrieve the second threshold value. As amatter of example, the media guidance application may retrieve a valueof seven corresponding to the second threshold value.

The media guidance application may search, at a low frequency, theirrelevant actors database for an actor with a score that matches theactor score range corresponding to a promising actor. The media guidanceapplication may, upon identifying an actor in the irrelevant actorsdatabase who should be classified as a promising actor, delete theidentified actor from the irrelevant actors database and include theidentified actor in the promising actors database. Specifically, themedia guidance application may search, at a first frequency, theirrelevant actors database for an actor associated with a first entryhaving a value corresponding to the actor score field that is betweenthe first threshold value and the second threshold value. The mediaguidance application may retrieve, based on the searching, the firstentry. For example, the media guidance application may query (e.g., byusing database management languages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL oranother suitable language) data structure 102 every six months for anactor who is associated with an actor score that is between five andseven.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may use SQLSELECT command (e.g., SELECT * FROM irrelevant actors WHERE actor scoreBETWEEN five AND seven) to perform the query. Following from theprevious example, the media guidance application may receive, becausethe actor score associated with the actor Chris Pratt is six, entry 120associated with actor Chris Pratt as a result of the query. In someembodiments, the query result may include a unique or specificidentifier associated with entry 120 associated with actor Chris Pratt.In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, as aresult of the query, a pointer or link to entry 120 associated withChris Pratt, which the media guidance application may use to retrievethe entry associated with “Chris Pratt.” The media guidance applicationmay update the promising actors database by including the first entry inthe promising actors database. The media guidance application may updatethe irrelevant actors database by deleting the first entry from theirrelevant actors database. For example, the media guidance applicationmay delete entry 120 associated with Chris Pratt from data structure 102(i.e., the irrelevant actors database) and include an entry associatedwith “Chris Pratt” in data structure 104. FIG. 1B depicts datastructures 102, 104 and 106 following the update, at a time 150 laterthan time 100. Data structure 102 no longer includes an entry associatedwith Chris Pratt. Data structure 104 has been updated to include entry146 associated with Chris Pratt.

The media guidance application may update the scores of actors in thepromising actors database and the media guidance application may search,at a higher frequency, the promising actors database for an actor with ascore that matches the actor score range corresponding to a relevantactor. The media guidance application may, upon identifying an actor inthe promising actors database who should be classified as a relevantactor, include the identified actor in the relevant actors database.Specifically, the media guidance application may update the actor scorefield corresponding to the second plurality of entries based on apre-defined factor. In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, basedon which the actor score field associated with a given entry of thesecond plurality of entries is updated, may be a score assigned to agiven actor, corresponding to a given entry, by a review source. Forexample, the pre-defined factor may be an actor rating assigned to ChrisPratt by an online movie review sources (e.g., the Internet MovieDatabase (IMDb), which is a comprehensive online database of informationrelated to movies, television programs, video games and other similarcontent).

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be number of media assets that the given actorhas acted in. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayincrease the actor score for a given actor if the number of media assetsthat the given actor has acted in has increased. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a total number of movies that actorChris Pratt has acted in to date for determining Chris Pratt's actorscore. For example, the media guidance application may determine, basedon comparing the total number of movies Chris Pratt acted in at thecurrent date with a total number of movies Chris Pratt had acted in at aprevious date, that the number of movies that Chris Pratt has acted inhas increased from ten to thirteen. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may compute a new actor score for Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be popularity of a media asset in which thegiven actor has acted. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may increase the actor score for given actor if the givenactor has recently acted in a popular media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may determine, based on accessing a datastructure associated with actor Chris Pratt, located at any of storage508, media content source 616 and media guidance data source 618, thatChris Pratt has recently acted in the movie “Jurassic Park.” The mediaguidance application may determine, based on a review associated withthe movie “Jurassic Park,” that “Jurassic Park” is a popular movie. Asan illustrative example, the media guidance application may access anonline review website (e.g., Rotten Tomatoes) and retrieve a popularityindicator for “Jurassic Park” (e.g., an audience rating of seventy-twopercent) that indicates “Jurassic Park” was popular. Accordingly, themedia guidance application may increase the actor score of Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be the level of acting of the given actor. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may determine thatChris Pratt has recently acted in the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy.”The media guidance application may determine, based on natural languageprocessing of reviews associated with “Guardians of the Galaxy,” thatChris Pratt's acting in the movie was generally acclaimed. The mediaguidance application may compute a new actor score based on thesefactors and update the entry associated with Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be popularity of the given actor. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may increase the actor scorefor given actor if popularity of the given actor has increased. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve an indicator ofactor popularity and, based on the retrieved indicator of actorpopularity, compute a new actor score. As an illustrative example, themedia guidance application may access a website associated with ChrisPratt (e.g., Chris Pratt's official website) and retrieve a number ofpeople following the website. The media guidance application maydetermine, based on the number of people following the website, apopularity of the actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actorscore field associated with a given entry of the second plurality ofentries is updated, may be the salary of the given actor. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may increase the actor scorefor given actor if the salary of the given actor has increased. In someembodiments, the pre-defined factor, based on which the actor scorefield associated with a given entry of the second plurality of entriesis updated, may be the number of pre-defined awards that the given actorhas received. For example, the media guidance application may determinea number of pre-defined awards (e.g., Oscar, Golden Globe, Saturn awardand other similar awards) that Chris Pratt has won and compute an actorscore based on the number of awards won. As an illustrative example, themedia guidance application may update value of the actor score 114 fieldof entry 146, associated with Chris Pratt, to eight. FIG. 1C depictsdata structures 102, 104 and 106 following the update to Chris Pratt'sactor score, at a time 160 later than time 150.

The media guidance application may search, at a second frequency, thepromising actors database to determine whether the promising actorsdatabase includes a relevant actor, where the second frequency isgreater than the first frequency. The media guidance application mayretrieve the second threshold value. The media guidance application maydetermine whether the value corresponding to the actor score fieldassociated with the first entry exceeds the second threshold value.Following from the previous example, the media guidance application mayretrieve a value of seven for the second threshold value. The mediaguidance application may query (e.g., by using database managementlanguages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitable language) datastructure 104 (i.e., the promising actors database) every month for anactor who is associated with an actor score that is greater than seven.Based on whether the query results include the first entry, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the actor score associatedwith the first entry exceeds the second threshold value. Alternatively,the media guidance application may execute a Boolean comparison functionthat returns a true result upon determining that a given actor score isgreater than the second threshold value to determine whether the valueof the actor score field associated with the first entry exceeds thesecond threshold value.

Following from the previous example, the media guidance application mayquery data structure 104 (i.e., the promising actors database) for allentries that are associated with actor scores greater than seven. Themedia guidance application may receive, because the actor scoreassociated with the actor Chris Pratt is eight, entry 146 associatedwith actor Chris Pratt as a result of the query. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may determine that actor score associated with theentry corresponding to Chris Pratt exceeds the second threshold value.The media guidance application may, in response to determining that thevalue corresponding to the actor score field associated with the firstentry exceeds the second threshold value, update the relevant actorsdatabase to include the first entry. The media guidance application mayinclude the entry associated with “Chris Pratt” in the relevant actorsdatabase. For example, the media guidance application may delete entry146 associated with Chris Pratt from data structure 104 (i.e., thepromising actors database) and include an entry associated with “ChrisPratt” in data structure 106. FIG. 1D depicts data structures 102, 104and 106 following the update, at a time 170 later than time 160. Datastructure 104 no longer includes an entry associated with Chris Pratt.Data structure 106 has been updated to include entry 148 associated withChris Pratt.

The media guidance application may receive a request for an actorrecommendation. The media guidance application may, in response toreceiving a request for an actor recommendation, provide the actorrecommendation based on entries in the relevant actors database. Themedia guidance application may receive, upon a user selecting, via userinput interface 510 on any of user television equipment 602, usercomputer equipment 604 and wireless user communications device 606, aselectable “receive actor recommendations” option, a request from a userfor an actor recommendation. The media guidance application may thenrecommend an actor based on entries in the relevant actors database. Forexample, the media guidance application may recommend the actor ChrisPratt, who is now included in data structure 106 (i.e., the relevantactors database), but not Famke Janssen, who is included in datastructure 102 (i.e., the irrelevant actors database).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may search theirrelevant actors database or an actor with a score that matches theactor score range corresponding to a relevant actor. The media guidanceapplication may, upon identifying an actor in the irrelevant actorsdatabase who should be classified as a relevant actor, delete theidentified actor from the irrelevant actors database and include theidentified actor in the relevant actors database. Specifically, themedia guidance application may search, at the first frequency, theirrelevant actors database for a second actor associated with a secondentry having a value corresponding to the actor score field that exceedsthe second threshold value. The media guidance application may retrieve,based on the searching for the second actor associated with a secondentry, the second entry. The media guidance application may update therelevant actors database by including the second entry in the relevantactors database. The media guidance application may update theirrelevant actors database by deleting the second entry from theirrelevant actors database.

Following from the previous example where the second threshold value isseven, the media guidance application may query (e.g., by using databasemanagement languages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitablelanguage) data structure 102 (i.e., the irrelevant actors database)every six months for an actor associated with an actor score greaterthan seven. As an illustrative example, data structure 102 (i.e., theirrelevant actors database) may include an entry with values “DwayneJohnson” and “eight” (not shown in FIGS. 1A-1D) corresponding to theactor ID 108 field and actor 110 score field respectively. The mediaguidance application may receive the entry associated with actor DwayneJohnson as a result of the query, and responsively, the media guidanceapplication may delete the entry associated with Dwayne Johnson fromdata structure 102 and include it in data structure 106 (i.e., therelevant actors database) instead.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may periodicallysearch the relevant actors database for actors who should no longer beclassified as relevant actors. Upon identifying, in the relevant actorsdatabase, an actor who should no longer be classified as a relevantactor, the media guidance application may move, based on an actor scoreassociated with the identified actor, the identified actor to either thepromising actors database or the irrelevant actors database.Specifically, the media guidance application may search, at a thirdfrequency, the relevant actors database for a third actor associatedwith a third entry having a value corresponding to the actor score fieldthat is less than the second threshold value. In some embodiments, thethird frequency may be less than the first frequency. In someembodiments, the third frequency may be greater than the secondfrequency. In some embodiments, the third frequency may be in betweenthe first frequency and the second frequency. Following from the examplewhere the second threshold value is seven, the media guidanceapplication may query data structure 106 (i.e., the relevant actorsdatabase) every three months for an actor associated with an actor scoreof less than seven.

The media guidance application may retrieve, based on the searching forthe third actor associated with a third entry, the third entry. Themedia guidance application may determine whether the value correspondingto the actor score field of the third entry is less than the firstthreshold value. As an illustrative example, data structure 106 (i.e.,the relevant actors database) may include an entry (not shown in FIGS.1A-1D) with values “Will Smith” and “six” corresponding to the actor ID116 field and actor score 118 field respectively. The media guidanceapplication may receive the entry associated with actor Will Smith as aresult of the query and determine whether the actor score for Will Smithis less than the first threshold value of five. For example, the mediaguidance application may execute a Boolean comparison function thatreturns a true result upon determining that a given actor is less thanthe first threshold value. For example, the media guidance applicationmay receive a “false” result when actor score for Will Smith (e.g., six)is compared with the first threshold value (e.g., five).

The media guidance application may, in response to determining that thevalue corresponding to the actor score field of the third entry is lessthan the first threshold value, update the irrelevant actors database byincluding the third entry in the irrelevant actors database. The mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the valuecorresponding to the actor score field of the third entry is not lessthan the first threshold value, update the promising actors database byincluding the third entry in the promising actors database. The mediaguidance application may update the relevant actors database by deletingthe third entry from the relevant actors database. In this instance, themedia guidance application may determine that the actor score associatedwith actor Will Smith is between the first and second threshold valuesof five and seven respectively. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may delete the entry associated with Will Smith from datastructure 106 (i.e., the relevant actors database) and include it indata structure 104 (i.e., the promising actors database) instead.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine anupdated actor score of an actor by computing a weighted average of actorscores assigned to the actor by various review sources. Specifically,the media guidance application may, when updating the actor score fieldcorresponding to a given entry of the second plurality of entries basedon the pre-defined factor, retrieve a first actor score assigned to agiven actor, corresponding to the given entry, by a first review source.The media guidance application may retrieve a first importance levelassociated with the first review source, where the first importancelevel is an indicator of how important inclusion of the first actorscore is in the computation of a new actor score corresponding to thegiven actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve, from any of storage 508, media content source 616 andmedia guidance data source 618, an actor score of nine that has beenassigned to Chris Pratt by the Internet Movie Database, an online reviewsource. The importance level may be quantitative values of a scale ofzero to four, where zero is corresponds to the lowest importance level.As a matter of example, the media guidance application may retrieve animportance level of three for the Internet Movie Database.

In some embodiments, the first importance level may be based onpopularity of the first review source. For example, importance level ofa given review source may be directly proportional to the popularity ofthe given review source. In some embodiments, the first importance levelmay be based on accuracy of the first review source. Some review sourcesmay be more accurate than other review sources. More accurate reviewsources may be assigned greater importance levels than less accuratereview sources. In some embodiments, the first importance level may bebased on the entity providing the first review source. The entityproviding the first review source may include, but is not limited to, acorporation, a private individual (e.g., a movie buff blogger), a publicpersonality (e.g., an acclaimed movie critic), or a social media group(e.g., a social media group of novice movie reviewers). As a matter ofexample, an acclaimed movie critic may be given a greater importancelevel than movie blogger. In some embodiments, the first importancelevel may be based on a user preference. A review source that matchesuser preferences may be given a higher importance level than a moviethat does not match user preferences. As a matter of example, the mediaguidance application may determine, based on accessing a user's webbrowsing history, that the user regularly visits the Internet MovieDatabase homepage and rarely visits homepage of Rotten Tomatoes, anotheronline review source.

Accordingly, the media guidance application may assign the InternetMovie Database a higher importance level than Rotten Tomatoes.

The media guidance application may retrieve a second score assigned tothe given actor by a second review source. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve a second importance level associated with thesecond review source, where the second importance level is an indicatorof how important inclusion of the second actor score is in thecomputation of the new actor score corresponding to the given actor andwherein the second importance level is less than the first importancelevel. As an illustrative example, the media guidance application mayretrieve, from any of storage 508, media content source 616 and mediaguidance data source 618, an actor score of five that has been assignedto Chris Pratt by Rotten Tomatoes, an online review source. Followingfrom the example where the importance level is defined on a scale ofzero to four, the media guidance application may retrieve an importancelevel of one for Rotten Tomatoes.

The media guidance application may compute the new actor score, wherethe new actor score is a weighted average of the first actor score andthe second actor score and where the first actor score is weightedgreater than the second actor score. The media guidance application maydetermine, based on accessing a look-up table that defines therelationship between an importance level of a review source and aweighting factor for an actor score provided by the review source, aweighting factor for a given actor score. As an illustrative example,the media guidance application may determine that the actor scoreassigned by the Internet Movie Database has a weighting factor ofseventy-five percent and the actor score assigned by Rotten Tomatoes hasa weighting factor of twenty-five percent. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may compute an updated actor score for Chris Prattusing the formula “actor score =[(seventy five percent * IMDb actorscore)+(twenty five percent * Rotten Tomatoes actor score)]”. In thisinstance, the media guidance application may compute an actor score ofeight for Chris Pratt. The media guidance application may update thevalue of the actor score field corresponding to the given entry to thenew actor score. For example, the media guidance application may updatethe value of the actor score field associated with Chris Pratt to eight.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role is the same as the most common roleof an actor that the user likes. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may, when providing the actor recommendation based onentries in the relevant actors database, determine a user associatedwith the request for the actor recommendation. The media guidanceapplication may determine a user associated with the request based on anunique identifier, such as a string of characters or bio-metric data(e.g., finger print, retina scan, voice recognition or another suitablebio-metric data), received from the user. As an illustrative example,the media guidance application may receive a user name “TD5774” from theuser and determine, based on accessing a user profile associated withuser name “TJ5774,” that the user is Teddy Jones. Additionally and/oralternatively, the media guidance application may determine a userassociated with the request based on an identifier associated with userequipment (e.g., a device identifier (ID), Internet protocol (IP)address and other suitable identifiers) on which the recommendationrequest is received. The media guidance application may determine theidentity of the user by retrieving, based on the identifier associatedwith the user equipment, a unique user identifier associated with theuser equipment. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on device ID of a user equipment, a log-in IDassociated with a user who uses the user equipment. The media guidanceapplication may then access a data structure (e.g., the user's profilelocated at any of storage 508, media content source 616 and mediaguidance data source 618) associated with the user identifier todetermine identity of the user.

The media guidance application may access a media consumption historydata structure, associated with the user, to determine a first actorthat the user prefers. The media guidance application may identify themedia consumption history data structure (e.g., the user's profile)associated with the user based on a unique identifier associated withthe user. The media consumption history data structure of the user mayinclude information about the user's media consumption habits. Forexample, the media consumption history data structure may includeinformation about the user's preferred media assets, genre, actor,director, producer, content sources, review sources and other similarinformation. As a matter of example, the media guidance application maydetermine, based on a list of preferred actors included in user TeddyJones' user profile, that user Teddy Jones likes the actor LeonardoDiCaprio.

The media guidance application may determine a prominent role associatedwith the first actor, where the prominent role associated with the firstactor is the most common role of the first actor. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a data structure associated with thefirst actor, located at any of storage 508, media content source 616 andmedia guidance data source 618, to retrieve a table that includes allmedia assets in which the first actor has featured and a role associatedwith the first actor corresponding to each media asset included in thetable. The media guidance application may filter (e.g., using a filterfunction or a query function) the retrieved table based on differentroles associated with the actor (e.g., leading actor, supportingcharacter, cameo appearance and other suitable roles) and determine anumber of media assets corresponding to each role associated with theactor. The media guidance application may then select the role that isassociated with the highest number of media assets of the table as theprominent role associated with the first actor.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may retrieve,for Leonardo DiCaprio, a table that includes ten movies (e.g., theLeonardo DiCaprio movie table) as the complete table of all movies inwhich Leonardo DiCaprio has featured. The media guidance application mayfilter the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table” for movies in which LeonardoDiCaprio played a supporting character. For example, the filtering mayyield two results and accordingly, the media guidance application maydetermine that two media assets of the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table”are associated with the supporting character role. Similarly, the mediaguidance application may filter the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table” formovies in which Leonardo DiCaprio was the lead actor. The filtering mayyield six results and accordingly, the media guidance application maydetermine that six media assets of the “Leonardo DiCaprio movie table”are associated with the leading actor role. The media guidanceapplication may update the value of a counter associated with thesupporting character role to two and the value of a counter associatedwith the leading actor role to six. The media guidance application mayrepeat this process for all other roles associated with LeonardoDiCaprio in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie table. Once counters for all theroles have been updated, the media guidance application may determine(e.g., by executing a function that determines an entry with the maximumvalue) the counter with the maximum value. The media guidanceapplication may select the role corresponding to the counter with themaximum value as the prominent role. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, based on the Leonardo DiCaprio movie table,that the counter corresponding to the leading actor role has the maximumvalue and accordingly, the media guidance application may determine thatLeonardo DiCaprio's prominent role is leading actor.

The media guidance application may determine a plurality of actors,included in the relevant actors database, where the prominent roleassociated with each actor of the plurality of actors matches theprominent role of the first actor. The media guidance application mayrecommend a second actor of the plurality of actors. For example, eachentry in data structure 106 may include an additional prominent rolefield (not shown in FIGS. 1A-1D), where the value of the prominent rolefield of a given entry is the most common role corresponding to theactor associated with the given entry. The media guidance applicationmay query, in manners discussed previously in relation to queryingdatabases for actors associated with a specific range of actor score,data structure 106 for entries that are associated with the prominentrole of the first actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may query data structure 106 for actors who are associatedwith a value of leading actor in the prominent role field. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may receive entriesassociated with actors Chris Pratt (entry 148), Shah Rukh Khan (notshown in FIGS. 1A-1D) and Jennifer Lawrence (entry 142) as a result ofthe query. The media guidance application may randomly select an actorreturned by the query for recommendation to the user. For example, themedia guidance application may recommend actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may use aprobability distribution to determine the prominent role associated withan actor. The probability distribution may be either discrete orcontinuous. For example, in a given media asset, there are very fewleading actors (male protagonist, female protagonist, antagonist) andvery few background actors. Most of the actors may be supportingcharacters. As an illustrative example, the probability distribution ofthe different unique roles in a media asset (leading actor, supportingactor, background actor), where the different roles are orderedaccording to importance, may be a normal distribution. The mediaguidance application may, when determining a prominent role of a givenactor, compute an average rank percentage of the given actor. The mediaguidance application may compute the rank percentage of the given actorin a given media asset using the formula (rank of actor in an orderedlist of all actors in the given media asset/total number of actors inthe media asset). The media guidance application may compute an averageof rank percentages of the given actor in various media assets todetermine the average rank percentage of the given actor. The mediaguidance application may then retrieve a pre-defined role probabilitydistribution that provides probabilities of various roles in mediaassets. As an illustrative example, the role probability distributionmay be a normal distribution where the most important roles are at thetail end of the distribution and the least important roles are at thehead end of the distribution. The media guidance application may computethe cumulative probability range associated with each role in roleprobability distribution. For example, the cumulative probability rangeassociated with roles leading actor, supporting actor, background actormay be zero to seven percent, thirty to seventy percent and ninety-threeto hundred percent respectively. As an illustrative example, if theaverage rank percentage of the given actor is three percent, the actorwould be classified as a lead actor.

Specifically, the media guidance application may, when determining theprominent role associated with a first actor, determine a first mediaasset in which the first actor appears. For example, the media guidanceapplication may access a data structure associated with the first actorto retrieve a table that includes all media assets in which the firstactor has featured. As a matter of example, the first actor may beJennifer Lawrence and she may have appeared in two movies (e.g., “TheHunger Games” and “Silver Linings Playbook”). The media guidanceapplication may select “The Hunger Games” as the first media asset. Themedia guidance application may retrieve a first credit list associatedwith the first media asset, where the first credit lists all actorsappearing in the first media asset. The media guidance application maydetermining a first position of the first actor in the first credit listand a total number of actors in the first credit list. For example, themedia guidance application may retrieve the credit list for “The HungerGames” from a data structure associated with “The Hunger Games.” Forexample, the data structure may be located at the media guidance datasource. The media guidance application may determine, based on thecredit list for “The Hunger Games,” that there is a total of twenty-twoactors in “The Hunger Games” and Jennifer Lawrence's rank in the creditlist is one. The media guidance application may compute a first rankpercentage of the first actor based on the first position of the firstactor in the first credit list and the total number of actors in thefirst credit list. For example, the media guidance application maycompute the first rank percentage using the formula (rank of first actorin first credit list/total number of actors in the first credit list).As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may computethe first rank to be four-and-half percent in this case.

The media guidance application may determine a second media asset inwhich the first actor appears. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine “Silver Linings Playbook” as the second mediaasset. The media guidance application may retrieve a second credit listassociated with the second media asset, where the second credit listsall actors appearing in the second media asset. The media guidanceapplication may determine a second position of the first actor in thesecond credit list and a total number of actors in the second creditlist. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve thecredit list for “Silver Linings Playbook” and determine that there is atotal of twenty-eight actors in “Silver Linings Playbook” and JenniferLawrence's rank in the credit list is two. The media guidanceapplication may compute a second rank percentage of the first actorbased on the second position of the first actor in the second creditlist and the total number of actors in the second credit list. The mediaguidance application may compute, in manners described previously inrelation to computing the first rank percentage, a second rankpercentage of seven-point-one percent for Jennifer Lawrence.

The media guidance application may compute, based on the first rankpercentage and the second rank percentage, an average rank percentage ofthe first actor. In this example, the media guidance application maycalculate an average rank percentage of five-point-eight. The mediaguidance application may retrieve a role probability distribution wherethe role probability distribution provides probabilities of variousroles in media assets. As an illustrative example, the role probabilitydistribution may be a pre-defined normal distribution where the mostimportant roles (e.g., lead actor) are at the tail end of thedistribution and the least important roles (e.g., background actor) areat the head end of the distribution. The media guidance application maydetermine a first role associated with the role probability distributionthat has a cumulative probability range that includes the average rankpercentage of the first actor. The media guidance application may selectthe first role as the prominent role. As a matter of example, thecumulative probability range associated with roles leading actor,supporting actor, background actor may be zero to seven percent, thirtyto seventy percent and ninety-three to hundred percent respectively. Inthis example, the media guidance application may determine, because theaverage rank percentage of Jennifer Lawrence (e.g., five-point-eightpercent) is included in the cumulative probability range associated withleading actor role (e.g., zero to seven percent), that the prominentrole of Jennifer Lawrence is lead actor.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and most common genre are the sameas the most common role and most common genre of an actor that the userlikes. Specifically, the media guidance application may further, whenrecommending the second actor of the plurality of actors, determine aprominent genre associated with the first actor, where the prominentgenre associated with the first actor is most common genre associatedwith the first actor. The media guidance application may determine, inmanners described previously in relation to determining the prominentrole associated with the first actor, the prominent genre associatedwith the first actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the prominent genre associated withLeonardo DiCaprio is drama. The media guidance application may determinean actor of the plurality of actors, where the prominent genreassociated with the actor of the plurality of actors matches theprominent genre associated with the first actor. The media guidanceapplication may select the actor of the plurality of actors as thesecond actor.

For example, each entry in data structure 106 (i.e., the relevant actorsdatabase) may include an additional prominent genre field (now shown inFIGS. 1A-1D), where the value of the prominent genre field of a givenentry is the most common genre corresponding to the actor associatedwith the given entry. The media guidance application may query, inmanners discussed previously in relation to querying databases foractors associated with a specific range of actor score, the entriescorresponding to the plurality of actors for an actor that is associatedwith the prominent genre of the first actor. The media guidanceapplication may select the actor of the plurality of actors as thesecond actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidance applicationmay query the entries corresponding to the plurality of actors (e.g.,Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and Jennifer Lawrence) for actors who areassociated with a value of drama in the prominent genre field. Theprominent genre associated with Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and JenniferLawrence may be drama, romantic comedy and action respectively. In thisexample, the media guidance application may receive the entry associatedwith actor Chris Pratt (entry 148) as a result of the query andrecommend actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and most common media assetindustry are the same as the most common role and most common mediaasset industry of an actor that the user likes. The term “media assetindustry,” as used herein, is defined to mean an entertainment industryinvolved in producing and distributing movies. Media asset industry mayinclude, but is not limited to, geographically distinct film industriessuch as cinema of the United States (generally referred to asHollywood), Cinema of the United Kingdom, Cinema of China, Cinema ofIndia (Bollywood), Cinema of Nigeria, Cinema of Persia and othersuitable film industries. Media asset industry may include, but is notlimited to, different streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, AmazonInstant video and HBO. Media asset industry may include, but is notlimited to, different production companies such as Time Warner, Sony,the Walt Disney Company and NBCUniversal.

Specifically, the media guidance application may further, whenrecommending the second actor of the plurality of actors, determine aprominent media asset industry associated with the first actor, wherethe prominent media asset industry associated with the first actor ismost common media asset industry associated with the first actor. Themedia guidance application may determine, in manners describedpreviously in relation to determining the prominent role associated withthe first actor, the prominent media asset industry associated with thefirst actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the prominent media asset industry associated withLeonardo DiCaprio is Hollywood. The media guidance application maydetermine an actor of the plurality of actors, where prominent mediaasset industry associated with the actor of the plurality of actorsmatches the prominent media asset industry associated with the firstactor. The media guidance application may select the actor of theplurality of actors as the second actor.

For example, each entry in data structure 106 (i.e., the relevant actorsdatabase) may include an additional prominent media asset industry field(not shown in FIGS. 1A-D), where value of prominent media asset industryfield of a given entry is the most common media asset industrycorresponding to the actor associated with the given entry. The mediaguidance application may query, in manners discussed previously inrelation to querying databases for actors associated with a specificrange of actor score, the entries corresponding to the plurality ofactors for an actor that is associated with the prominent media assetindustry of the first actor. As an illustrative example, the mediaguidance application may query the entries corresponding to theplurality of actors (e.g., Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and JenniferLawrence) for actors who are associated with a value of Hollywood in theprominent media asset industry field. The prominent media asset industryassociated with Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and Jennifer Lawrence may beHollywood, Bollywood and Hollywood respectively. In this example, themedia guidance application may receive the entries associated withactors Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence (entry 142 and entry 148) as aresult of the query and recommend either Chris Pratt or JenniferLawrence.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and most common level of acting arethe same as the most common role and most common level of action of anactor that the user likes. The term “level of acting,” as used herein,is defined to mean a qualitative or quantitative indicator of an actor'squality of acting. For example, level of acting may be fuzzy logicvariables such as “bad” “mediocre,” “good” and “phenomenal.” The actorscore may be a numerical value (e.g., three) on a pre-defined scale(e.g., a scale ranging from zero to ten where zero corresponds to worstpossible quality of acting and ten corresponds to best possible qualityof acting).

Specifically, the media guidance application may further, whenrecommending the second actor of the plurality of actors, determine aprominent level of acting associated with the first actor, where theprominent level of acting associated with the first actor is most commonlevel of acting associated with the first actor. The media guidanceapplication may determine, in manners described previously in relationto determining the prominent role associated with the first actor, theprominent level of acting associated with the first actor. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may determine thatthe prominent level of acting associated with Leonardo DiCaprio isexcellent. The media guidance application may determine an actor of theplurality of actors, where the prominent level of acting associated withthe actor of the plurality of actors matches the prominent level ofacting associated with the first actor. The media guidance applicationmay select the actor of the plurality of actors as the second actor.

For example, each entry in data structure 106 (i.e., the relevant actorsdatabase) may include an additional prominent level of acting field,where value of prominent level of acting field of a given entry is themost common level of acting corresponding to the actor associated withthe given entry. The media guidance application may query, in mannersdiscussed previously in relation to querying databases for actorsassociated with a specific range of actor score, the entriescorresponding to the plurality of actors for an actor that is associatedwith the prominent level of acting of the first actor. The mediaguidance application may select the actor of the plurality of actors asthe second actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may query the entries corresponding to the plurality ofactors (e.g., Chris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and Jennifer Lawrence) foractors who are associated with a value of excellent in the prominentlevel of acting field. The prominent level of acting associated withChris Pratt, Shah Rukh Khan and Jennifer Lawrence may be excellent, goodand mediocre respectively. In this example, the media guidanceapplication may receive the entry associated with actor Chris Pratt as aresult of the query and recommend actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may recommendanother actor whose most common role and gender are the same as the mostcommon role and most common gender of an actor that the user likes. Fromthe previous example, the media guidance application may recommend actorChris Pratt because the most common role of both Chris Pratt andLeonardo DiCaprio is leading actor, and both Chris Pratt and LeonardoDiCaprio are male. In this instance, the media guidance application maynot recommend actor Jennifer Lawrence, who is female. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may recommend another actorwho shares any combination of features with an actor that the userlikes.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative display that the media guidanceapplication may generate for display during presentation of segments ofcontent associated with a pre-specified quality of acting, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 2 depicts an illustrativedisplay 200, which may be presented by control circuitry that executes amedia guidance application on any user equipment. The functionality ofuser equipment, control circuitry, and the media guidance application isdescribed in further detail below with respect to FIGS. 3-6. Controlcircuitry may cause display 200 to be presented using the one or more ofthe processes described in FIGS. 7-13. Display 200 may include a varietyof displays such as displays 220 and 250.

Display 220 is an example of a display the media guidance applicationmay generate for receiving a user selection of a given actor and apre-specified quality of acting associated with the given actor. As anillustrative example, the media guidance application may include, indisplay 220, a prompt such as “Enter parameters for a media assetsegment you would like to view” to instruct the user to provide therequired parameters. The media guidance application may include, indisplay 220, enter actor 202 prompt with a text entry 204 option. Themedia guidance application may also include several selectable options(e.g., selectable option 206 [poor], selectable option 208 [mediocre],selectable option 210 [good], and selectable option 212 [excellent])corresponding to various levels of acting to allow a user to specify alevel of action. The media guidance application may include selectableoption 214 (request media asset segment) to allow a user to request amedia asset segment associated with the specified parameters. Display250 is an example of a display the media guidance application maygenerate for presenting the user with the media asset segment thatmatches the parameters specified via display 220. As an illustrativeexample, the media guidance application may present media asset segment216 in display 250.

In some aspects, the media guidance application is configured to providesegments of content that are associated with pre-specified quality ofacting. The media guidance application may receive a request from a userfor a media asset clip in which a given actor acted poorly.Specifically, the media guidance application may receive, from a user, arequest for a media asset segment. The request may specify an actor anda level of acting associated with the actor, where the level of actingassociated with the actor is below a threshold level of acting that isrequired for a given level of acting to be categorized as good acting.The threshold level of acting that is required for a given level ofacting to be categorized as good acting may correspond to a pre-definedminimum value that is required for a given level of acting to becategorized as good acting. The media guidance application may retrieve,by accessing a default parameters data structure, the threshold level ofacting.

As a matter of example, for the case where quality of acting isquantified on a scale of zero to ten with zero being the worst possiblequality, the media guidance application may retrieve a value of sixcorresponding to the threshold level of acting. For example, the mediaguidance application may receive a user input, via display 220, thatindicates that the user would like to view a movie clip associated withactor Chris Pratt (e.g., user enters “Chris Pratt” in text entry 204option), where Chris Pratt's level of acting is “poor” (e.g., userselects selectable option 206). The media guidance application mayaccess a look-up table, located at any of storage 508, media contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618, that defines arelationship between a qualitative indicator of level of acting and aquantitative indicator of level of acting, to convert the qualitativeindicator of level of acting into a quantitative value. Following fromthe example where quality of acting is quantified on a scale of zero toten, the media guidance application may determine, based on the look-uptable, that “poor” level of acting corresponds to values zero throughthree.

The media guidance application may search a data structure associatedwith the actor for a first media asset in which the actor plays aleading role. For example, the media guidance application may access adatabase (e.g., a media content data source database), located at any ofstorage 508, media content source 616 and media guidance data source618, where each entry includes information about a movie, contributorsto the movie and roles of the contributors in the movie (e.g., leadactor, supporting actor, director). The media guidance application maythen query the database, using database management languages (e.g., SQL,JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitable language), for an entry where actorChris Pratt is a contributor and where the role of Chris Pratt is a leadactor. As an illustrative example, the media guidance application mayuse the SQL SELECT command to perform this query. The media guidanceapplication may receive an entry in which actor Chris Pratt is listed asa lead actor as a result of the query. In some embodiments, the queryresult may include a unique or specific identifier associated with theentry associated within which actor Chris Pratt is listed as a leadactor. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive,as a result of the query, a pointer or link to the entry in which actorChris Pratt is listed as a lead actor, which the media guidanceapplication may use to retrieve the entry. As an illustrative example,the media guidance application may receive the movie “Jurassic Park” inwhich Chris Pratt appears as a lead actor.

The media guidance application may determine, based on metadataassociated with the first media asset, a plurality of segments of thefirst media asset in which the actor appears. For example, the mediaguidance application may parse metadata associated with “Jurassic Park”to retrieve the start time and end time of each segment of “JurassicPark” in which Chris Pratt appears. The start time and end time may betime codes associated with frames in the media asset. For example, thetime code may be in the format (hour:minute:second:frame) where(hour:minute:second) portion indicates an amount of time elapsed fromstart point of the media asset and (frame) identifies a frame associatedwith point in time indicated by the (hour:minute:second) portion. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve time codes(00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) as the start time and end timerespectively of a first segment of “Jurassic Park” in which Chris Prattappears. As an illustrative example, the first segment of “JurassicPark” in which Chris Pratt appears may be media asset segment 216. Themedia guidance application may retrieve time codes (00:15:00:00) and(00:18:00:00) as the start time and end time respectively of a secondsegment of “Jurassic Park” in which Chris Pratt appears.

The media guidance application may identify a segment of the first mediaasset in which the given actor has acted poorly based on keywords in areview associated with the first media asset. Specifically, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a review associated with the firstmedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may access asource that provides information about media assets to retrieve a reviewassociated with the first media asset. A source that providesinformation about media assets can be, but is not limited to, onlinedatabases providing information related to media assets, social mediaplatforms, blogs and articles. For example, the media guidanceapplication may access the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to retrieve areview associated with “Jurassic Park.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may use a reviewprovided by a review source that the user prefers when identifying asegment of content associated with a pre-specified quality of acting.Specifically, the media guidance application may, when retrieving areview associated with the first media asset, determine, based onaccessing a data structure associated with the user, a review sourcepreferred by the user. The media guidance application may access thereview source preferred by the user to retrieve the review associatedwith the first media asset. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine, based on accessing the user's web browsing history,located at any of storage 508, media content source 616 and mediaguidance data source 618, that the user regularly visits the website ofRotten Tomatoes but rarely visits the website of Internet MovieDatabase. Accordingly, the media guidance application may select RottenTomatoes as the review source preferred by the user. The media guidanceapplication may then access the Rotten Tomatoes website to retrieve areview associated with “Jurassic Park.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may parse the reviewfor a portion of the review that is associated with the first segment.For example, the media guidance application may determine the portion ofthe review discussing Chris Pratt's first appearance in the movie“Jurassic Park” refers to media asset segment 216 (i.e., the firstsegment with the start and end time codes (00:10:00:00) and(00:12:00:00) respectively). The media guidance application may thenextract, from the portion of the review, certain keywords that arefrequently used to describe actor performances (e.g., “weak,” “wooden,”“stagy,” “fake,” “realistic,” “layered” and other frequently used wordsfor describing quality of acting).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may analyze thecontext of a given keyword, using natural language processing techniquesfor example, to determine an entity that the given keyword is referringto. As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may usetext mining techniques (e.g., named entity recognition, coreference,sentiment analysis, semantic analysis, etc.) to determine context of agiven keyword. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the words “unrealistic” and “wooden” were used to describe ChrisPratt's acting in media asset segment 216. The media guidanceapplication may determine, based on keywords included in the review, afirst level of acting associated with the actor in a first segment ofthe plurality of segments. As a matter of example, the media guidanceapplication may use natural language processing to determine a degree ofpositivity corresponding to the keywords included in the review. Themedia guidance application may then access a look-up table that definesthe relationship between a given degree of positivity and acorresponding level of acting to retrieve the first level of actingassociated with the actor.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, whendetermining the first level of acting based on keywords included in thereview, access a data structure that contains a score corresponding toeach keyword of a plurality of keywords and determine scorescorresponding to the keywords included in the review. The media guidanceapplication may compute, based on the scores corresponding to thekeywords included in the review, the first level of acting associatedwith the actor. As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may use a formula that averages scores associated withkeywords to compute the first level of acting in the first segment. Themedia guidance application may access a look-up table, located at any ofstorage 508, media content source 616 and media guidance data source618, containing numerical values corresponding to different keywords todetermine a score associated with a given keyword. As an illustrativeexample, a look-up table may contain values, corresponding to keywords,on a scale of zero to ten, where a higher value corresponds to a higherquality of acting. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve values of two and three corresponding to the keywords“unrealistic” and “wooden” respectively. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may compute a level of acting of two-and-a half for ChrisPratt's acting in media asset segment 216 of “Jurassic Park.”

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thefirst level of acting with the user-specified level of acting, whetherthe first level of acting associated with the actor in the first segmentmatches the user-specified level of acting. The media guidanceapplication may, in response to determining that the first level ofacting associated with the actor in the first segment matches theuser-specified level of acting, generate for display the first segment.For example, the media guidance application may determine, based oncomparing a computed level of acting (e.g., two-and-a-half) with thelevel of acting received from the user (e.g., “poor” actingcorresponding to range of zero through three level of acting), thatChris Pratt's acting in media asset segment 216 of “Jurassic Park”matches the user-specified level of acting. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may display media asset segment 216 of “JurassicPark” to the user in display 250.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, upon receivinga request for segments of content that are associated with apre-specified quality of acting, provide segments from popular moviesonly. Specifically, the media guidance application may, when searchingthe data structure associated with the actor for the first media asset,retrieve a media asset popularity threshold score, where the media assetpopularity threshold score corresponds to a minimum score required forany media asset to be categorized as a popular media asset. As anillustrative example, a popularity score may be defined on a scale ofzero to ten, with zero corresponding to the lowest popularity and tencorresponding to the highest popularity. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve (e.g., by accessing a default parameters data structurelocated at any of storage 508, media content source 616 and mediaguidance data source 618) a media asset popularity threshold score ofseven.

The media guidance application may retrieve a popularity scoreassociated with a given media asset included in the data structureassociated with the actor. Following from the previous example where themedia guidance application retrieved “Jurassic Park” as a movie in whichChris Pratt appears, the media guidance application may retrieve apopularity score associated with “Jurassic Park.” As a matter ofexample, the media guidance application may access review source IMDband retrieve a popularity score of eight for “Jurassic Park.” The mediaguidance application may determine whether the popularity scoreassociated with the given media asset exceeds the media asset popularitythreshold score. The media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the popularity score associated with the given mediaasset exceeds the media asset popularity threshold score, select thegiven media asset as the first media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may execute a Boolean comparison function thatreturns a “true” result upon determining that a given popularity scoreis greater than the popularity threshold score. In this case, the mediaguidance application may, responsive to receiving, upon comparing thepopularity score of “Jurassic Park” with the media asset popularitythreshold score, a “true” result, select “Jurassic Park” as a movie fromwhich to present the user segment associated with actor Chris Pratt.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be configured toprovide segments of content that are associated with both apre-specified quality of acting and a characteristic that is of interestto the user. Specifically, the media guidance application may, whendetermining the plurality of segments of the first media asset in whichthe actor appears, determine, based on metadata associated with thefirst media asset, a second segment of the first media asset in whichthe actor appears. The media guidance application may determine, basedon metadata associated with the first media asset, a plurality ofcharacteristics associated with the second segment. As an illustrativeexample, the media guidance application may determine, in mannersdiscussed previously, that Chris Pratt appears in a segment with starttime code and end time code of (00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00)respectively. The media guidance application may parse metadataassociated with the segment with start time code and end time code of(00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00) respectively for characteristicsassociated with the segment. For example, the segment with start timecode and end time code of (00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00) respectivelymay be a scene where Chris Pratt's character is chased by a dinosaur ina jungle. Accordingly, the media guidance application may retrieve“jungle,” “action,” “chase” and “dinosaur” as characteristics associatedwith the segment.

The media guidance application may determine, based on accessing a datastructure associated with the user, a media asset preference of theuser. The media asset preference of the user may be one of a genre, anevent, a character, a second actor and a setting. For example, a userprofile associated with the user may include media asset preferences ofthe user. As a matter of example, the user profile associated with theuser Teddy Jones may include media asset preferences such as action(genre), Leonardo DiCaprio (actor) and urban landscapes (setting). Themedia guidance application may determine, based on comparing theplurality of characteristics associated with the second segment with amedia asset preference of the user, whether a characteristic associatedwith the second segment matches the media asset preference of the user.

As an illustrative example, the media guidance application may execute afunction that iteratively queries a list of media asset preferencesincluded in Teddy Jones' user profile for each characteristic associatedwith the segment with start time code and end time code of (00:20:00:00)and (00:22:00:00) respectively. For example, the media guidanceapplication may query the media asset preferences list for “jungle,”“action,” “chase” and “dinosaur” to determine if the media assetpreferences list includes any of those characteristics. The mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that thecharacteristic associated with the second segment matches the mediaasset preference of the user, include the second segment in theplurality of segments of the first media asset in which the actorappears. For example, the media guidance application may receive apositive result for characteristic “action” and responsively, the mediaguidance application may include the segment with start time code andend time code of (00:20:00:00) and (00:22:00:00) respectively in a listof segments of “Jurassic Park,” associated with Chris Pratt, from whichto select a segment for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be configured toautomatically display, after displaying a segment of a media asset thatmatched the user-specified quality of acting, a playlist of other mediaasset segments in which the level of acting of a lead actor matches theuser- specified quality of acting. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may, subsequent to generating for display the first segment,automatically generate for display a playlist that includes a pluralityof media asset segments, where the level of acting associated with eachmedia asset segment of the plurality of media asset segments matches theuser-specified level of acting. Following from the previous example,after displaying media asset segment 216 from “Jurassic Park” in whichChris Pratt acted poorly, the media guidance application mayautomatically display a playlist of other movie segments in which ChrisPratt acted poorly.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include, in aplaylist automatically presented after the display of a first mediaasset segment that matched the user-specified quality of acting, anothermedia asset segment that is associated with the same actor and alsoincluded in the same media asset as the first media asset segment.Specifically, the media guidance application may, when determining afirst media asset segment to include in the playlist, select a secondsegment of the plurality of segments of the first media asset in whichthe actor appears. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine, in manners discussed previously, Chris Pratt appears in asegment of “Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of(00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectively. The media guidanceapplication may determine, based on keywords included in the review, asecond level of acting associated with the actor in the second segmentof the plurality of segments. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve a review for “Jurassic Park” from a reviewsource (e.g., Rotten Tomatoes) and determine a portion of the reviewdiscussing the segment of “Jurassic Park” with start and end time codesof (00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectively. As an illustrativeexample, the media guidance application may determine that the words“fake” and “ludicrous” were used to describe Chris Pratt's acting in thesegment of “Jurassic Park” with start and end time codes of(00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectively. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may, in manners discussed previously in relation todetermining a level of acting, compute a level of acting of one forChris Pratt's acting in the segment of “Jurassic Park” with start andend time codes of (00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectively.

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thesecond level of acting with the user-specified level of acting, whetherthe second level of acting associated with the actor in the secondsegment matches the user-specified level of acting. The media guidanceapplication may, in response to determining that the second level ofacting associated with the actor in the second segment matches theuser-specified level of acting, include the second segment in theplaylist. For example, the media guidance application may execute aBoolean comparison function to determine whether the computed level ofacting (e.g., one) matches the level of acting received from the user(e.g., “poor” acting corresponding to range of zero through three levelof acting). In this case, the media guidance application may, uponreceiving a true result from the Boolean comparison function, determinethat Chris Pratt's acting in the segment of “Jurassic Park” with startand end time codes of (00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectivelymatches the user specified level of acting. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may include the segment of “Jurassic Park” withstart and end time codes of (00:23:00:00) and (00:24:00:00) respectivelyin the playlist presented after the display of media asset segment 216.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include, in aplaylist automatically presented after display of a first media assetsegment that matched the user-specified quality of acting, another mediaasset segment that is associated with the same actor as the first mediaasset segment but is from a different media asset. Specifically, themedia guidance application may, when determining a first media assetsegment to include in the playlist, search the data structure associatedwith the actor for a second media asset in which the actor plays aleading role. Following from the previous example, the media guidanceapplication may determine, in manners described previously, that ChrisPratt is a lead actor in the movie “Passengers.” The media guidanceapplication may determine, based on metadata associated with the secondmedia asset, a segment of the second media asset in which the actorappears. The media guidance application may retrieve, from any ofstorage 508, media content source 616 and media guidance data source618, a review associated with the second media asset. The media guidanceapplication may determine, based on keywords included in the reviewassociated with the second media asset, a second level of actingassociated with the actor in the segment of the second media asset inwhich the actor appears.

As a matter of example, the media guidance application may determine, inmanners discussed previously, that Chris Pratt appears in a segment ofthe movie “Passengers” with start and end time codes of (00:3:00:00) and(00:4:00:00) respectively. The media guidance application may retrieve areview for “Passengers” from a review source (e.g., Internet MovieDatabase) and determine a portion of the review discussing the segmentof “Passengers” with start and end time codes of (00:03:00:00) and(00:04:00:00) respectively. As an illustrative example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the words “unconvincing” and“trite” were used to describe Chris Pratt's acting in the segment of“Passengers” with start and end time codes of (00:03:00:00) and(00:04:00:00) respectively. Accordingly, the media guidance applicationmay, in manners discussed previously in relation to determining a levelof acting, compute a level of acting of one-and-a-half for Chris Pratt'sacting in the segment of “Passengers” with start and end time codes of(00:03:00:00) and (00:04:00:00) respectively.

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thesecond level of acting with the user-specified level of acting, whetherthe second level of acting associated with the actor matches theuser-specified level of acting. The media guidance application may, inresponse to determining that the second level of acting associated withthe actor matches the user-specified level of acting, include thesegment of the second media asset in the playlist. For example, themedia guidance application may execute a Boolean comparison function todetermine whether the computed level of acting (e.g., one-and-a-half)matches the level of acting received from the user (e.g., “poor” actingcorresponding to a range of zero through three level of acting). In thiscase, the media guidance application may, upon receiving a true resultfrom the Boolean comparison function, determine that Chris Pratt'sacting in the segment of “Passengers” with start and end time codes of(00:03:00:00) and (00:04:00:00) respectively matches the user-specifiedlevel of acting. Accordingly, the media guidance application may includethe segment of “Passengers” with start and end time codes of(00:03:00:00) and (00:04:00:00) respectively in the playlist presentedafter the display of media asset segment 216.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include, in aplaylist automatically presented after display of a first media assetsegment that matched the user-specified quality of acting, another mediaasset segment that is associated with another lead actor who is similarto the lead actor in the first media asset segment. Specifically, themedia guidance application may, when determining a first media assetsegment to include in the playlist, determine another actor who shares apre-defined characteristic with the actor specified by the user. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may access data structure106 to determine the another actor who shares a pre-definedcharacteristic with the actor specified by the user. The pre-definedcharacteristic may be, but is not limited to, a prominent genre, careertrajectory, gender, school of acting, award and degree of popularity. Asa matter of example, the prominent genre associated with Chris Pratt maybe drama. The media guidance application may determine, in mannersdiscussed previously in relation to determining prominent genre of agiven actor, that prominent genre associated with Leonardo DiCaprio isalso drama. Accordingly, the media guidance application may selectLeonardo DiCaprio as an actor similar to Chris Pratt.

The media guidance application may search a data structure associatedwith the another actor for a second media asset in which the anotheractor plays a leading role. The media guidance application maydetermine, in manners discussed previously, that Leonardo DiCaprio playsa leading role in the movie “Titanic.” The media guidance applicationmay determine, based on metadata associated with the second media asset,a segment of the second media asset in which the another actor appears.The media guidance application may retrieve, from any of storage 508,media content source 616 and media guidance data source 618, a reviewassociated with the second media asset. The media guidance applicationmay determine, based on keywords included in the review associated withthe second media asset, a level of acting associated with the anotheractor in the segment of the second media asset in which the anotheractor appears. The media guidance application may determine, in mannersdiscussed previously, Leonardo DiCaprio appears in a segment of movie“Titanic” with start and end time codes of (00:55:00:00) and(00:57:00:00) respectively and compute a level of acting of one forLeonardo DiCaprio's acting in that segment.

The media guidance application may determine, based on comparing thelevel of acting associated with the another actor with the userspecified level of acting, whether the level of acting associated withthe another actor matches the user specified level of acting. The mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the level ofacting associated with the another actor matches the user specifiedlevel of acting, include the segment of the second media asset in theplaylist. For example, the media guidance application may execute aBoolean comparison function to determine whether the computed level ofacting (e.g., one) matches the level of acting received from the user(e.g., “poor” acting corresponding to range of zero through three levelof acting). In this case, the media guidance application may, uponreceiving a true result from the Boolean comparison function, determinethat Leonardo DiCaprio's acting in segment of “Titanic” with start andend time codes of (00:55:00:00) and (00:57:00:00) respectively match theuser specified level of acting. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may include the segment of “Titanic” with start and end timecodes of (00:55:00:00) and (00:57:00:00) respectively in the playlistpresented after the display of media asset segment 216.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users.

As referred to herein, the phrase “media guidance data” or “guidancedata” should be understood to mean any data related to content or dataused in operating the guidance application. For example, the guidancedata may include program information, guidance application settings,user preferences, user profile information, media listings,media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels,titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental controlratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actorinformation, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.),media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.),advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips, etc.),on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type of guidancedata that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locate desiredcontent selections.

FIGS. 3-4 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 3-4 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 3-4 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 3 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 300arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 300 may include grid 302 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 304, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 306, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 302 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 308, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 310. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 310 may be provided inprogram information region 312. Region 312 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 302 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 314, recorded content listing 316, andInternet content listing 318. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 300 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings314, 316, and 318 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 302 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 302. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 320. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 320.)

Display 300 may also include video region 322, advertisement 324, andoptions region 326. Video region 322 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 322 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 302. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 324 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 302. Advertisement 324 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 302. Advertisement324 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 324 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 324 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 324 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid302. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 326 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 326 may be part of display 300 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 326 may concern features related to program listings in grid 302or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 6. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 4. Video mosaic display 400 includes selectable options 402 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 400, television listings option 404 isselected, thus providing listings 406, 408, 410, and 412 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 400 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 408 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 414 and text portion 416.Media portion 414 and/or text portion 416 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 414 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 400 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 406 islarger than listings 408, 410, and 412), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 5 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 500. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 6.User equipment device 500 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 502. I/O path 502 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 504, which includesprocessing circuitry 506 and storage 508. Control circuitry 504 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 502. I/O path 502 may connect control circuitry 504 (andspecifically processing circuitry 506) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 504 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 506. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 504 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 508). Specifically, control circuitry 504 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 504 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 504 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 504 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 6). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 508 thatis part of control circuitry 504. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 508 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 6, may be used to supplementstorage 508 or instead of storage 508.

Control circuitry 504 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 504 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 500. Circuitry 504 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 508 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 500, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 508.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 504 using user inputinterface 510. User input interface 510 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 512 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500. For example, display 512 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 510may be integrated with or combined with display 512. Display 512 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 512 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 512 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 512.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry504. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 504.Speakers 514 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 512 may be played throughspeakers 514. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers514.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 500. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage508), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 504 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 508 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 504 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 510. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 510 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 500 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 500. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 504 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 504) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 500. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 500.Equipment device 500 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 510 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 500 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 510.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 500 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 504). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 504 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 504. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 504. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 500 of FIG. 5 can be implemented in system 600 ofFIG. 6 as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,wireless user communications device 606, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 5 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, or awireless user communications device 606. For example, user televisionequipment 602 may, like some user computer equipment 604, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 604 may, like some user television equipment 602,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 604, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 606.

In system 600, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless user communicationsdevice 606) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 614.Namely, user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, andwireless user communications device 606 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 614 via communications paths 608, 610, and 612, respectively.Communications network 614 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 608, 610, and 612 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 612 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 6 it is awireless path and paths 608 and 610 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 608, 610, and 612, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 614.

System 600 includes content source 616 and media guidance data source618 coupled to communications network 614 via communication paths 620and 622, respectively. Paths 620 and 622 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 608, 610,and 612. Communications with the content source 616 and media guidancedata source 618 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 616 and 618 withuser equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 are shown as throughcommunications network 614, in some embodiments, sources 616 and 618 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 608, 610, and 612.

Content source 616 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 616 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 616 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 616 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 618 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 618may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 618 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 618 mayprovide user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 508, and executedby control circuitry 504 of a user equipment device 500. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 504 of user equipment device 500and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 618) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 618), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 618 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices602, 604, and 606 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 600 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 6.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 614.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 616 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 602 and user computer equipment 604may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 606 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 614. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 616 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 618. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, and wirelessuser communications device 606. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 604 or wireless usercommunications device 606 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 604. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 614. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 5.

As referred to herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated asa result of. For example, a first action being performed in response toa second action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred to herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining aset of relevant actors from which to recommend an actor to a user, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 700 may beexecuted by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by the mediaguidance application. Control circuitry 504 may be implemented on userequipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6). In addition, one or moreactions of process 700 may be incorporated into or combined with one ormore actions of any other process or embodiment.

Process 700 begins at 702, where control circuitry 504 searches, at afirst frequency, a set of irrelevant actors for an actor associated withan actor score that is between a promising actor threshold score and arelevant actor threshold score. For example, control circuitry 504 mayaccess a threshold parameters data structure, located at any of storage508, media content source 616 and media guidance data source 618, andretrieve a promising actor threshold score of five and a relevant actorthreshold score of seven. Control circuitry 504 may query (e.g., byusing database management languages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL oranother suitable language) data structure 102 every six months for anentry associated with an actor score that is between five and seven. Asan illustrative example, when control circuitry 504 performs this queryat time 100, control circuitry 504 may receive, because the actor scoreassociated with the actor Chris Pratt is six, entry 120 associated withactor Chris Pratt as a result of the query. Process 700 continues to704, where control circuitry 504, in response to identifying the actorassociated with the actor score that is between the promising actorthreshold score and the relevant actor threshold score, includes theactor in a set of promising actors. Control circuitry 504 may deleteentry 120 associated with Chris Pratt from data structure 102 (i.e., theset of irrelevant actors) and include an entry associated with “ChrisPratt” (entry 146) in data structure 104 (i.e., the set of promisingactors). FIG. 1B depicts data structures 102, 104 and 106 following theupdate, at a time 150 later than time 100.

Process 700 continues to 706, where control circuitry 504 updates, basedon a plurality of factors, actor scores corresponding to actors includedin the set of promising actors. For example, control circuitry 504 mayupdate the actor score of a given actor based on any of: the actor scoreassigned by a review source; number of media assets that the given actorhas acted in; popularity of a media assets in which the given actor hasacted; level of acting of the given actor;

popularity of the given actor; salary of the given actor and number ofpre-defined awards that the given actor has received. As an illustrativeexample, control circuitry 504 may update the value of the actor score114 field of entry 146, associated with Chris Pratt, to eight. FIG. 1Cdepicts data structures 102, 104 and 106 following the update to ChrisPratt's actor score, at a time 160 later than time 150.

Process 700 continues to 708, where control circuitry 504 searches, at asecond frequency, the set of promising actors for an actor associatedwith an actor score that exceeds the relevant actor threshold score,where the second frequency is greater than the first frequency.Following from the previous example, control circuitry 504 may query(e.g., by using database management languages such as SQL, JAPQL,CODASYL or another suitable language) data structure 104 (i.e., the setof promising actors) every month for an actor who is associated with anactor score that is greater than seven. Control circuitry 504 mayreceive, because the actor score associated with the actor Chris Prattis eight, entry 146 associated with actor Chris Pratt as a result of thequery. Process 700 continues to 710, where control circuitry 504determines, based on the updated actor score associated with the actorexceeding the relevant actor threshold score, that the actor is arelevant actor. Control circuitry 504, upon receiving entry 146 as aresult of the query, may determine that actor Chris Pratt is a relevantactor. Process 700 continues to 712, where control circuitry 504, inresponse to determining that the actor is a relevant actor, includes theactor in a set of relevant actors. For example, the media guidanceapplication may delete entry 146 associated with Chris Pratt from datastructure 104 (i.e., the set of promising actors) and include an entryassociated with “Chris Pratt” in data structure 106. FIG. 1D depictsdata structures 102, 104 and 106 following the update, at a time 170later than time 160. Data structure 104 no longer includes an entryassociated with Chris Pratt. Data structure 106 has been updated toinclude entry 148 associated with Chris Pratt.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in recommending anactor based on entries in a particular database, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 800 may be executed by controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by the media guidance application.Control circuitry 504 may be implemented on user equipment 602, 604,and/or 606 (FIG. 6). In addition, one or more actions of process 800 maybe incorporated into or combined with one or more actions of any otherprocess or embodiment.

Process 800 begins at 802, where control circuitry 504 accesses anirrelevant actors database to determine whether the irrelevant actorsdatabase includes a promising actor, where the irrelevant actorsdatabase comprises of a first plurality of entries and where each entryof the first plurality of entries comprises an actor identifier fieldand an actor score field. As an illustrative example, at time 100, datastructure 102 may include entries 120, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130 and 132.Each entry in data structure 102 may include an actor ID 108 field andan actor score 110 field. Process 800 continues to 804, where controlcircuitry 504 retrieves a first threshold value, where the firstthreshold value corresponds to a minimum actor score required forincluding an actor in a promising actors database and where thepromising actors database comprises a second plurality of entries andwhere each entry of the second plurality of entries comprises the actoridentifier field and the actor score field. For example, controlcircuitry 504 may access a threshold parameters data structure, locatedat any of storage 508, media content source 616 and media guidance datasource 618, to retrieve the first threshold value of five. As anillustrative example, at time 100, data structure 104 (i.e., thepromising actors database) may include entries 134, 136, 138 and 140.Each entry in data structure 104 may include an actor ID 112 field andan actor score 114 field.

Process 800 continues to 806, where control circuitry 504 retrieves asecond threshold value, where the second threshold value corresponds toa minimum actor score required for including an actor in a relevantactors database. For example, control circuitry 504 may access thethreshold parameters data structure and retrieve a second thresholdvalue of seven. Process 800 continues to 808, where control circuitry504 searches, at a first frequency, the irrelevant actors database foran actor associated with a first entry having a value corresponding tothe actor score field that is between the first threshold value and thesecond threshold value. For example, control circuitry 504 may query(e.g., by using database management languages such as SQL, JAPQL,CODASYL or another suitable language) data structure 102 every sixmonths for an actor who is associated with an actor score that isbetween five and seven. Process 800 continues to 810, where controlcircuitry 504 retrieves, based on the searching, the first entry. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may perform this query at time 100 and,because the actor score associated with the actor Chris Pratt is six,control circuitry 504 may receive entry 120 as a result of the query.

Process 800 continues to 812, where control circuitry 504 updates thepromising actors database by including the first entry in the promisingactors database. Process 800 continues to 804, where control circuitry504 updates the irrelevant actors database by deleting the first entryfrom the irrelevant actors database. For example, control circuitry 504may delete entry 120 associated with Chris Pratt from data structure 102(i.e., the irrelevant actors database) and include an entry associatedwith “Chris Pratt” in data structure 104. FIG. 1B depicts datastructures 102, 104 and 106 following the update, at a time 150 laterthan time 100. Data structure 102 no longer includes an entry associatedwith Chris Pratt. Data structure 104 has been updated to include entry146 associated with Chris Pratt. Process 800 continues to 816, wherecontrol circuitry 504 updates the actor score field corresponding to thesecond plurality of entries based on a pre-defined factor. For example,control circuitry 504 may update the actor score of a given actor basedon any of: actor score assigned by a review source; number of mediaassets that the given actor has acted in; popularity of a media assetsin which the given actor has acted; level of acting of the given actor;popularity of the given actor; salary of the given actor and number ofpre-defined awards that the given actor has received. As an illustrativeexample, control circuitry 504 may update, based on increased popularityof Chris Pratt's movies, the value of the actor score 114 field of entryassociated with Chris Pratt (i.e., entry 146) to eight. FIG. 1C depictsdata structures 102, 104 and 106 following the update to Chris Pratt'sactor score, at a time 160 later than time 150.

Process 800 continues to 818, where control circuitry 504 searches, at asecond frequency, the promising actors database to determine whether thepromising actors database includes a relevant actor, where the secondfrequency is greater than the first frequency. Process 800 continues to820, where control circuitry 504 retrieves the second threshold value.Process 800 continues to 822, where control circuitry 504 determineswhether the value corresponding to the actor score field associated withthe first entry exceeds the second threshold value. Following from theprevious example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve a value of sevenfor the second threshold value. Control circuitry 504 may query (e.g.,by using database management languages such as SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL oranother suitable language) data structure 104 (i.e., the promisingactors database) every month for all entries that are associated withactor scores greater than seven. Control circuitry 504 may receive,because the actor score associated with the actor Chris Pratt is eight,entry 146 as a result of the query. Accordingly, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the actor score associated with the entrycorresponding to Chris Pratt exceeds the second threshold value.

If, at 822, control circuitry 504 determines that the valuecorresponding to the actor score field associated with the first entrydoes not exceed the second threshold value, process 800 reverts to 818,where control circuitry 504 continues searching, at a second frequency,the promising actors database for a relevant actor. If, at 822, controlcircuitry 504 determines that the value corresponding to the actor scorefield associated with the first entry exceeds the second thresholdvalue, process 800 continues to 824. At 824, control circuitry 504updates the relevant actors database to include the first entry. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may delete entry 146 associated withChris Pratt from data structure 104 (i.e., the promising actorsdatabase) and include an entry associated with “Chris Pratt” (entry 148)in data structure 106. FIG. 1D depicts data structures 102, 104 and 106following the update, at a time 170 later than time 160. Data structure104 no longer includes an entry associated with Chris Pratt. Datastructure 106 has been updated to include entry 148 associated withChris Pratt.

Process 800 continues to 826, where control circuitry 504, in responseto receiving a request for an actor recommendation, provides the actorrecommendation based on entries in the relevant actors database. Controlcircuitry 504 may receive, upon a user selecting, via user inputinterface 510 on any of user television equipment 602, user computerequipment 604 and wireless user communications device 606, a selectable“receive actor recommendations” option, a request from a user for anactor recommendation. Control circuitry 504 may then recommend an actorbased on entries in the relevant actors database. For example, controlcircuitry 504 may recommend the actor Chris Pratt, who is now includedin data structure 106 (i.e., the relevant actors database), but notFamke Janssen, who is included in data structure 102 (i.e., theirrelevant actors database).

FIG. 9 is another flowchart of illustrative steps involved inrecommending an actor based on entries in a particular database, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 900 may beexecuted by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by the mediaguidance application. Control circuitry 504 may be implemented on userequipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6). In addition, one or moreactions of process 900 may be incorporated into or combined with one ormore actions of any other process or embodiment.

Process 900 begins at 902, where control circuitry 504 begins theprocess for recommending a second actor. Process 900 continues to 904,where control circuitry 504 accesses a media consumption history datastructure, associated with the user, to determine a first actor that theuser prefers. Control circuitry 504 may identify the media consumptionhistory data structure (e.g., user's profile located at any of storage508, media content source 616 and media guidance data source 618)associated with the user based on a unique identifier associated withthe user. The media consumption history data structure of the user mayinclude information about the user's media consumption habits. Forexample, the media consumption history data structure may includeinformation about the user's preferred media assets, genre, actor,director, producer, content sources, review sources and other similarinformation. As a matter of example, control circuitry 504 maydetermine, based on a list of preferred actors included in user TeddyJones' user profile, that user Teddy Jones likes the actor LeonardoDiCaprio.

Process 900 continues to 906, where control circuitry 504 accesses arecommendation rules data structure that includes rules for selectingthe second actor. Process 900 continues to 908, where control circuitry504 determines whether, based on the recommendation rules datastructure, a prominent role associated with the first actor has to betaken into account. For example, control circuitry 504 may access therecommendation rules data structure, located at any of storage 508,media content source 616 and media guidance data source 618, andretrieve a flag associated with a “take prominent role into account”rule entry. Upon retrieving a false value for the flag, controlcircuitry 504 may determine that the prominent role associated with thefirst actor does not have to be taken into account. If, at 908, controlcircuitry 504 determines that the prominent role associated with thefirst actor does not have to be taken into account, process 900continues to 910.

At 910, control circuitry 504 determines, based on the recommendationrules data structure, whether a prominent genre associated with thefirst actor has to be taken into account. For example, control circuitry504 may retrieve a false flag associated with a “take prominent genreinto account” rule entry and determine that the prominent genreassociated with the first actor does not have to be taken into account.If, at 910, control circuitry 504 determines that the prominent genreassociated with the first actor does not have to be taken into account,process 900 continues to 912. At 912, control circuitry 504 randomlyselects an actor included in the relevant actors database as the secondactor. For example, control circuitry 504 may randomly select, using asuitable random selection algorithm, entry 142 in data structure 106 andrecommend actress Jennifer Lawrence.

If, at 910, control circuitry 504 determines that the prominent genreassociated with the first actor has to be taken into account, process900 continues to 916. At 916, control circuitry 504 determines a firstplurality of actors, included in the relevant actors database, where theprominent genre associated with each actor of the first plurality ofactors matches the prominent genre of the first actor. As anillustrative example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve, from a datastructure associated with Leonardo DiCaprio, a prominent genre of dramafor Leonardo DiCaprio. For example, each entry in the data structure 106(e.g., the relevant actors database) may include an additional prominentgenre field, where the value of the prominent genre field of a givenentry is the most common genre corresponding to the actor associatedwith the given entry. Control circuitry 504 may query, in mannersdiscussed previously in relation to querying databases for actorsassociated with a specific range of actor score, data structure 106 forentries that have a value of drama in the prominent genre field. As anillustrative example, control circuitry 504 may receive an entryassociated with Chris Pratt (e.g., entry 148), an entry associated withViola Davis, and an entry associated with Nicole Kidman as a result ofthe query. Process 900 continues to 918, where control circuitry 504selects an actor included in the first plurality of actors as the secondactor. For example, control circuitry 504 may select Viola Davis forrecommending to the user.

If, at 908, control circuitry 504 determines that the prominent roleassociated with the first actor has to be taken into account, process900 continues to 920. At 920, control circuitry 504 determines a secondplurality of actors, included in the relevant actors database, where theprominent role associated with each actor of the second plurality ofactors matches the prominent role of the first actor. As an illustrativeexample, control circuitry 504 may retrieve, from a data structureassociated with Leonardo DiCaprio, a prominent role of leading actor forLeonardo DiCaprio. For example, each entry in the data structure 106(e.g., the relevant actors database) may include an additional prominentrole field, where the value of the prominent role field of a given entryis the most common genre corresponding to the actor associated with thegiven entry. Control circuitry 504 may query, in manners discussedpreviously in relation to querying databases for actors associated witha specific range of actor score, data structure 106 for entries thathave a value of leading actor in the prominent role field. As anillustrative example, control circuitry 504 may receive an entryassociated with Chris Pratt (e.g., entry 148), an entry associated withJennifer Lawrence (e.g., entry 142), an entry associated with Shah RukhKhan and an entry associated with Nicole Kidman as a result of thequery.

Process 900 continues to 922, where control circuitry 504 determines,based on the recommendation rules data structure, whether a prominentgenre associated with the first actor has to be taken into account. If,at 922, control circuitry 504 determines that the prominent genreassociated with the first actor does not have to be taken into account,process 900 continues to 924. At 924, control circuitry 504 selects anactor included in the second plurality of actors as the second actor.Following from the example above, where the second plurality of actorsincludes Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Shah Rukh Khan and NicoleKidman, control circuitry 504 may select actor Chris Pratt to recommendto the user. If, at 922, control circuitry 504 determines that theprominent genre associated with the first actor has to be taken intoaccount, process 900 continues to 926. At 926, control circuitry 504determines a third plurality of actors, included in the second pluralityof actors, where prominent genre associated with each actor of the thirdplurality of actors matches the prominent genre of the first actor. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may further query the entriescorresponding to the second plurality of actors for entries that areassociated with a value of drama in the prominent genre field. As anillustrative example, the prominent genre associated with Chris Pratt,Shah Rukh Khan, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicole Kidman may be drama,romantic comedy, action and drama respectively. In this case, controlcircuitry 504 may receive entries associated with Chris Pratt and NicoleKidman as a result of the query.

Process 900 continues to 928, where control circuitry 504 selects anactor included in the third plurality of actors as the second actor. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may select Chris Pratt to recommend tothe user.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining aprominent genre of an actor, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 1000 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG.5) as instructed by the media guidance application. Control circuitry504 may be implemented on user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6).In addition, one or more actions of process 1000 may be incorporatedinto or combined with one or more actions of any other process orembodiment.

Process 1000 begins at 1002, where control circuitry 504 begins theprocess for determining the prominent genre of an actor. Process 1000continues to 1004, where control circuitry 504 accesses a data structureassociated with the actor to retrieve a table that includes all mediaassets in which the actor has featured, where each entry in the tablecontains a media asset identifier field and an actor role field. As anillustrative example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve, for LeonardoDiCaprio, a table that includes ten movies (e.g., Leonardo DiCapriomovie table) as the complete table of all movies in which LeonardoDiCaprio has featured. The Leonardo DiCaprio movie table may alsoinclude, for each movie, a role of Leonardo DiCaprio in that movie.Process 1000 continues to 1006, where control circuitry 504 determines,based on values associated with the actor role field in the table, alist of unique actor roles associated with the actor. For example,control circuitry 504 may use a SQL SELECT DISTINCT operation todetermine a list of unique roles included in the Leonardo DiCaprio movietable. As a matter of example, control circuitry 504 may determineunique roles of leading actor, supporting actor and cameo appearance.

Process 1000 continues to 1008, where control circuitry 504 initializesa plurality of counters to zero, where the plurality of countersincludes a counter corresponding to each role in the list of uniqueactor roles. For example, control circuitry 504 may initialize leadingactor counter, supporting actor counter and cameo appearance counter tozero. Process 1000 continues to 1010, where control circuitry 504selects next unselected entry in the table. Process 1000 continues to1012, where control circuitry 504 retrieves the value of the actor rolefield associated with the selected entry. Process 1000 continues to1014, where control circuitry 504 increments counter corresponding tothe retrieved actor role. For example, control circuitry 504 may selectthe first entry in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie table and determine thatthe actor role for the selected first entry is leading actor.Accordingly, control circuitry 504 may increment value of leading actorcounter to one. Process 1000 continues to 1016, where control circuitry504 determines whether there is another unselected entry in the table.In this instance, control circuitry 504 may determine that there arenine unselected entries in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie table. If, at1016, control circuitry 504 determines that there is another unselectedentry in the table, process 1000 reverts to 1010. For example, controlcircuitry 504 iterates through all entries in the Leonardo DiCapriomovie table and updates the appropriate counters.

If, at 1016, control circuitry 504 determines that there is no otherunselected entry in the table, process 1000 continues to 1018. At 1018,control circuitry 504 determines a first counter of the plurality ofcounters that has the maximum value. Process 1000 continues to 1020,where control circuitry 504 assigns actor role corresponding to thefirst counter as the prominent role. For example, after controlcircuitry 504 has iterated through all entries in the Leonardo DiCapriomovie table, control circuitry 504 may execute a function thatdetermines the counter with the maximum value. As an illustrativeexample, control circuitry 504 may determine that the countercorresponding to leading actor role has the maximum value and,accordingly, the media guidance application may determine that LeonardoDiCaprio's prominent role is leading actor.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providingsegments of content associated with a pre-specified quality of acting,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 1100 maybe executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by the mediaguidance application. Control circuitry 504 may be implemented on userequipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6). In addition, one or moreactions of process 1100 may be incorporated into or combined with one ormore actions of any other process or embodiment.

Process 1100 begins at 1102 where control circuitry 504 receives, from auser, a request for a media asset segment, where the request specifiesan actor and a level of acting associated with the actor and where thelevel of acting associated with the actor is below a threshold level ofacting that is required for a given level of acting to be categorized asgood acting. For example, control circuitry 504 may receive a userinput, via display 220, that indicates that the user would like to viewa movie clip associated with actor Chris Pratt (e.g., user enters “ChrisPratt” in text entry 204 option), where Chris Pratt's level of acting is“poor” (e.g., user selects selectable option 206).

Process 1100 continues to 1104, where control circuitry 504 determines afirst media asset in which the actor plays a leading role. For example,control circuitry 504 may access a database (e.g., a media content datasource database), located at any of storage 508, media content source616 and media guidance data source 618, where each entry includesinformation about a movie, contributors to the movie and roles of thecontributors in the movie (e.g., lead actor, supporting actor,director). Control circuitry 504 may then query the database, usingdatabase management languages (e.g., SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL or anothersuitable language), for an entry where actor Chris Pratt is acontributor and where the role of Chris Pratt is a lead actor. As anillustrative example, control circuitry 504 may use the SQL SELECTcommand to perform this query. Control circuitry 504 may receive anentry in which actor Chris Pratt is listed as a lead actor as a resultof the query. As an illustrative example, control circuitry 504 maydetermine, based on the received entry, that Chris Pratt was a leadactor in the movie “Jurassic Park.”

Process 1100 continues to 1106, where control circuitry 504 determines afirst segment of the first media asset in which the actor appears and inwhich a first level of acting associated with the actor matches theuser-specified level of acting. Process 1100 continues to 1108, wherecontrol circuitry 504 generates for display the first segment. As anillustrative example, control circuitry 504 may determine, based onmetadata associated with “Jurassic Park,” that Chris Pratt appears inmedia asset segment 216 of “Jurassic Park.” Control circuitry 504 maydetermine, based on a review, that Chris Pratt's acting in media assetsegment 216 of “Jurassic Park” is poor. Accordingly, control circuitry504 may present media asset segment 216 of “Jurassic Park” to the user.

FIG. 12 is another flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providingsegments of content associated with a pre-specified quality of acting,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 1200 maybe executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by the mediaguidance application. Control circuitry 504 may be implemented on userequipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6). In addition, one or moreactions of process 1200 may be incorporated into or combined with one ormore actions of any other process or embodiment.

Process 1200 begins at 1202, where control circuitry 504 receives, froma user, a request for a media asset segment, where the request specifiesan actor and a level of acting associated with the actor and where thelevel of acting associated with the actor is below a threshold level ofacting that is required for a given level of acting to be categorized asgood acting. For example, control circuitry 504 may receive a userinput, via display 220, that indicates that the user would like to viewa movie clip associated with actor Chris Pratt (e.g., user enters “ChrisPratt” in text entry 204 option), where Chris Pratt's level of acting is“poor” (e.g., user selects selectable option 206).

Process 1200 continues to 1204, where control circuitry 504 searches adata structure associated with the actor for a first media asset inwhich the actor plays a leading role. For example, control circuitry 504may access a database (e.g., a media content data source database),located at any of storage 508, media content source 616 and mediaguidance data source 618, where each entry includes information about amovie, contributors to the movie and roles of the contributors in themovie (e.g., lead actor, supporting actor, director). Control circuitry504 may then query the database, using database management languages(e.g., SQL, JAPQL, CODASYL or another suitable language), for an entrywhere actor Chris Pratt is a contributor and where the role of ChrisPratt is a lead actor. As an illustrative example, control circuitry 504may use the SQL SELECT command to perform this query. Control circuitry504 may receive an entry in which actor Chris Pratt is listed as a leadactor as a result of the query. As an illustrative example, controlcircuitry 504 may determine, based on the received entry, that ChrisPratt was a lead actor in the movie “Jurassic Park.”

Process 1200 continues to 1206, where control circuitry 504 determines,based on metadata associated with the first media asset, a plurality ofsegments in the first media asset in which the actor appears.

For example, control circuitry 504 may parse metadata associated with“Jurassic Park” to retrieve start time and end time of each segment of“Jurassic Park” in which Chris Pratt appears. For example, controlcircuitry 504 may retrieve time codes (00:10:00:00) and (00:12:00:00) asstart time and end time respectively of a first segment of “JurassicPark” in which Chris Pratt appears. As an illustrative example, thefirst segment of “Jurassic Park” in which Chris Pratt appears may bemedia asset segment 216.

Process 1200 continues to 1208, where control circuitry 504 retrieves areview associated with the first media asset. Process 1200 continues to1210, where control circuitry 504 determines, based on keywords includedin the review, a first level of acting associated with the actor in afirst segment of the plurality of segments. For example, controlcircuitry 504 may access a source, located at any of storage 508, mediacontent source 616 and media guidance data source 618, that providesinformation about media assets to retrieve a review associated with“Jurassic Park.” Control circuitry 504 may parse the review for aportion of the review that is associated with media asset segment 216.For example, control circuitry 504 may determine that the words“unrealistic” and “wooden” were used to describe Chris Pratt's acting inmedia asset segment 216.

As a matter of example, control circuitry 504 may use natural languageprocessing to determine a degree of positivity corresponding to thekeywords included in the review. The media guidance application may thenaccess a look-up table that defines the relationship between a givendegree of positivity and a corresponding level of acting to retrieve thefirst level of acting associated with the actor. For example, controlcircuitry 504 may determine a level of acting of two-and-a-half forChris Pratt's acting in media asset segment 216 of “Jurassic Park.”

Process 1200 continues to 1212, where control circuitry 504 determines,based on comparing the first level of acting with the user specifiedlevel of acting, whether the first level of acting associated with theactor in the first segment matches the user-specified level of acting.Process 1200 continues to 1214, where control circuitry 504, in responseto determining that the first level of acting associated with the actorin the first segment matches the user-specified level of acting,generates for display the first segment. For example, control circuitry504 may determine, based on comparing a determined level of acting(e.g., two-and-half) with the level of acting received from the user(e.g., “poor” acting corresponding to a range of zero through threelevel of acting), that Chris Pratt's acting in media asset segment 216of “Jurassic Park” matches the user-specified level of acting.Accordingly, control circuitry 504 may display media asset segment 216of “Jurassic Park” to the user in display 250.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in computing,based on keywords included in a review, a level of acting associatedwith an actor in a given segment, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. Process 1300 may be executed by control circuitry 504(FIG. 5) as instructed by the media guidance application. Controlcircuitry 504 may be implemented on user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606(FIG. 6). In addition, one or more actions of process 1300 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more actions of any otherprocess or embodiment.

Process 1300 begins at 1302, where control circuitry 504 begins aprocess for determining, based on keywords included in a review, a firstlevel of acting associated with an actor in a first segment of aplurality of segments of a media asset. Process 1300 continues to 1304,where control circuitry 504 accesses a look-up table that includes anumerical value corresponding to each keyword of a plurality ofkeywords. For example, control circuitry 504 may access a look-up table,located at any of storage 508, media content source 616 and mediaguidance data source 618, containing numerical values corresponding todifferent keywords to determine a score associated with a given keyword.As an illustrative example, a look-up table may contain values,corresponding to keywords, on a scale of zero to ten, where a highervalue corresponds to a higher quality of acting.

Process 1300 continues to 1306, where control circuitry 504 retrieves,from the look-up table, numerical values corresponding to the keywordsincluded in a review. For example, control circuitry 504 may determinethat the words “unrealistic” and “wooden” were used, in a review, todescribe Chris Pratt's acting in media asset segment 216. Controlcircuitry 504 may retrieve values of two and three corresponding to thekeywords “unrealistic” and “wooden” respectively. Process 1300 continuesto 1308, where control circuitry 504 computes, based on the numericalvalues corresponding to the keywords included in a review, the firstlevel of acting associated with the actor in the first segment of theplurality of segments of the media asset. As an illustrative example,control circuitry 504 may use a formula that averages scores associatedwith keywords to compute the first level of acting in the first segment.Based on values of two and three corresponding to the keywords“unrealistic” and “wooden” respectively, control circuitry 504 maycompute a level of acting of two-and-a-half for Chris Pratt's acting inmedia asset segment 216 of “Jurassic Park.”

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIGS. 7-13 may beused with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, thesteps and descriptions described in relation to FIG. 7-13 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed in anyorder or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag orincrease the speed of the system or method.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method for recommending actors based on entries in aparticular database, the method comprising: accessing an irrelevantactors database to determine whether the irrelevant actors databaseincludes a promising actor, wherein the irrelevant actors databasecomprises a first plurality of entries, and wherein each entry of thefirst plurality of entries comprises an actor identifier field and anactor score field; retrieving a first threshold value, wherein the firstthreshold value corresponds to a minimum actor score required forincluding an actor in a promising actors database, wherein the promisingactors database comprises a second plurality of entries, and whereineach entry of the second plurality of entries comprises the actoridentifier field and the actor score field; retrieving a secondthreshold value, wherein the second threshold value corresponds to aminimum actor score required for including an actor in a relevant actorsdatabase; searching, at a first frequency, the irrelevant actorsdatabase for an actor associated with a first entry having a valuecorresponding to the actor score field that is between the firstthreshold value and the second threshold value; retrieving, based on thesearching, the first entry; updating the promising actors database byincluding the first entry in the promising actors database; updating theirrelevant actors database by deleting the first entry from theirrelevant actors database; updating the actor score field correspondingto the second plurality of entries based on a pre-defined factor;searching, at a second frequency, the promising actors database todetermine whether the promising actors database includes a relevantactor, wherein the second frequency is greater than the first frequency;retrieving the second threshold value; determining whether the valuecorresponding to the actor score field associated with the first entryexceeds the second threshold value; in response to determining that thevalue corresponding to the actor score field associated with the firstentry exceeds the second threshold value, updating the relevant actorsdatabase to include the first entry; and in response to receiving arequest for an actor recommendation, providing the actor recommendationbased on entries in the relevant actors database.
 3. The method of claim2, further comprising: searching, at the first frequency, the irrelevantactors database for a second actor associated with a second entry havinga value corresponding to the actor score field exceeds the secondthreshold value; retrieving, based on the searching for the second actorassociated with a second entry, the second entry; updating the relevantactors database by including the second entry in the relevant actorsdatabase; and updating the irrelevant actors database by deleting thesecond entry from the irrelevant actors database.
 4. The method of claim2, further comprising: searching, at a third frequency, the relevantactors database for a third actor associated with a third entry having avalue corresponding to the actor score field that is less than thesecond threshold value; retrieving, based on the searching for the thirdactor associated with a third entry, the third entry; determiningwhether the value corresponding to the actor score field of the thirdentry is less than the first threshold value; in response to determiningthat the value corresponding to the actor score field of the third entryis less than the first threshold value, updating the irrelevant actorsdatabase by including the third entry in the irrelevant actors database;in response to determining that the value corresponding to the actorscore field of the third entry is not less than the first thresholdvalue, updating the promising actors database by including the thirdentry in the promising actors database; and updating the relevant actorsdatabase by deleting the third entry from the relevant actors database.5. The method of claim 2, wherein the pre-defined factor based on whichthe actor score field associated with a given entry of the secondplurality of entries is updated includes any of: a score assigned to agiven actor, corresponding to the given entry, by a review source;number of media assets that the given actor has acted in; popularity ofa media asset in which the given actor has acted; level of acting of thegiven actor; popularity of the given actor; salary of the given actor;and number of pre-defined awards that the given actor has received. 6.The method of claim 2, wherein updating the actor score fieldcorresponding to a given entry of the second plurality of entries basedon the pre-defined factor further comprises: retrieving a first actorscore assigned to a given actor, corresponding to the given entry, by afirst review source; retrieving a first importance level associated withthe first review source, wherein the first importance level is anindicator of how important inclusion of the first actor score is in thecomputation of a new actor score corresponding to the given actor;retrieving a second score assigned to the given actor by a second reviewsource; retrieving a second importance level associated with the secondreview source, wherein the second importance level is an indicator ofhow important inclusion of the second actor score is in the computationof the new actor score corresponding to the given actor and wherein thesecond importance level is less than the first importance level;computing the new actor score, wherein the new actor score is a weightedaverage of the first actor score and the second actor score and whereinthe first actor score is weighted greater than the second actor score;and updating value of the actor score field corresponding to the givenentry to the new actor score.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein thefirst importance level is based on any of: popularity of the firstreview source; accuracy of the first review source; entity providing thefirst review source; and a user preference.
 8. The method of claim 2,wherein providing the actor recommendation based on entries in therelevant actors database further comprises: determining a userassociated with the request for the actor recommendation; accessing amedia consumption history data structure, associated with the user, todetermine a first actor that the user prefers; determining a prominentrole associated with the first actor, wherein the prominent roleassociated with the first actor is most common role of the first actor;determining a plurality of actors, included in the relevant actorsdatabase, wherein prominent role associated with each actor of theplurality of actors matches the prominent role of the first actor; andrecommending a second actor of the plurality of actors.
 9. The method ofclaim 8, wherein recommending the second actor of the plurality ofactors further comprises: determining a prominent genre associated withthe first actor, wherein the prominent genre associated with the firstactor is most common genre associated with the first actor; determiningan actor of the plurality of actors, wherein prominent genre associatedwith the actor of the plurality of actors matches the prominent genreassociated with the first actor; and selecting the actor of theplurality of actors as the second actor.
 10. The method of claim 8,wherein recommending the second actor of the plurality of actors furthercomprises: determining a prominent media asset industry associated withthe first actor, wherein the prominent media asset industry associatedwith the first actor is most common media asset industry associated withthe first actor; determining an actor of the plurality of actors,wherein prominent media asset industry associated with the actor of theplurality of actors matches the prominent media asset industryassociated with the first actor; and selecting the actor of theplurality of actors as the second actor.
 11. The method of claim 8,wherein determining the prominent role associated with the first actorcomprises: determining a first media asset in which the first actorappears; retrieving a first credit list associated with the first mediaasset, wherein the first credit lists all actors appearing in the firstmedia asset; determining a first position of the first actor in thefirst credit list and a total number of actors in the first credit list;computing a first rank percentage of the first actor based on the firstposition of the first actor in the first credit list and the totalnumber of actors in the first credit list; determining a second mediaasset in which the first actor appears; retrieving a second credit listassociated with the second media asset, wherein the second credit listsall actors appearing in the second media asset; determining a secondposition of the first actor in the second credit list and a total numberof actors in the second credit list; computing a second rank percentageof the first actor based on the second position of the first actor inthe second credit list and the total number of actors in the secondcredit list; computing, based on the first rank percentage and thesecond rank percentage, an average rank percentage of the first actor;retrieving a role probability distribution wherein the role probabilitydistribution provides probabilities of various roles in media assets;determining a first role associated with the role probabilitydistribution that has a cumulative probability range that includes theaverage rank percentage of the first actor; and selecting the first roleas the prominent role.
 12. A system for recommending actors based onentries in a particular database, the system comprising: controlcircuitry configured to: access an irrelevant actors database todetermine whether the irrelevant actors database includes a promisingactor, wherein the irrelevant actors database comprises a firstplurality of entries, and wherein each entry of the first plurality ofentries comprises an actor identifier field and an actor score field;retrieve a first threshold value, wherein the first threshold valuecorresponds to a minimum actor score required for including an actor ina promising actors database, wherein the promising actors databasecomprises a second plurality of entries, and wherein each entry of thesecond plurality of entries comprises the actor identifier field and theactor score field; retrieve a second threshold value, wherein the secondthreshold value corresponds to a minimum actor score required forincluding an actor in a relevant actors database; search, at a firstfrequency, the irrelevant actors database for an actor associated with afirst entry having a value corresponding to the actor score field thatis between the first threshold value and the second threshold value;retrieve, based on the searching, the first entry; update the promisingactors database by including the first entry in the promising actorsdatabase; update the irrelevant actors database by deleting the firstentry from the irrelevant actors database; update the actor score fieldcorresponding to the second plurality of entries based on a pre-definedfactor; search, at a second frequency, the promising actors database todetermine whether the promising actors database includes a relevantactor, wherein the second frequency is greater than the first frequency;retrieve the second threshold value; determine whether the valuecorresponding to the actor score field associated with the first entryexceeds the second threshold value; in response to determining that thevalue corresponding to the actor score field associated with the firstentry exceeds the second threshold value, update the relevant actorsdatabase to include the first entry; and in response to receiving arequest for an actor recommendation, provide the actor recommendationbased on entries in the relevant actors database.
 13. The system ofclaim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:search, at the first frequency, the irrelevant actors database for asecond actor associated with a second entry having a value correspondingto the actor score field exceeds the second threshold value; retrieve,based on the searching for the second actor associated with a secondentry, the second entry; update the relevant actors database byincluding the second entry in the relevant actors database; and updatethe irrelevant actors database by deleting the second entry from theirrelevant actors database.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: search, at a thirdfrequency, the relevant actors database for a third actor associatedwith a third entry having a value corresponding to the actor score fieldthat is less than the second threshold value; retrieve, based on thesearching for the third actor associated with a third entry, the thirdentry; determine whether the value corresponding to the actor scorefield of the third entry is less than the first threshold value; inresponse to determining that the value corresponding to the actor scorefield of the third entry is less than the first threshold value, updatethe irrelevant actors database by including the third entry in theirrelevant actors database; in response to determining that the valuecorresponding to the actor score field of the third entry is not lessthan the first threshold value, update the promising actors database byincluding the third entry in the promising actors database; and updatethe relevant actors database by deleting the third entry from therelevant actors database.
 15. The system of claim 12, wherein thepre-defined factor based on which the actor score field associated witha given entry of the second plurality of entries is updated includes anyof: a score assigned to a given actor, corresponding to the given entry,by a review source; number of media assets that the given actor hasacted in; popularity of a media asset in which the given actor hasacted; level of acting of the given actor; popularity of the givenactor; salary of the given actor; and number of pre-defined awards thatthe given actor has received.
 16. The system of claim 12, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured, when updating the actor scorefield corresponding to a given entry of the second plurality of entriesbased on the pre-defined factor, to: retrieve a first actor scoreassigned to a given actor, corresponding to the given entry, by a firstreview source; retrieve a first importance level associated with thefirst review source, wherein the first importance level is an indicatorof how important inclusion of the first actor score is in thecomputation of a new actor score corresponding to the given actor;retrieve a second score assigned to the given actor by a second reviewsource; retrieve a second importance level associated with the secondreview source, wherein the second importance level is an indicator ofhow important inclusion of the second actor score is in the computationof the new actor score corresponding to the given actor and wherein thesecond importance level is less than the first importance level; computethe new actor score, wherein the new actor score is a weighted averageof the first actor score and the second actor score and wherein thefirst actor score is weighted greater than the second actor score; andupdate value of the actor score field corresponding to the given entryto the new actor score.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the firstimportance level is based on any of: popularity of the first reviewsource; accuracy of the first review source; entity providing the firstreview source; and a user preference.
 18. The system of claim 12,wherein the control circuitry is further configured, when providing theactor recommendation based on entries in the relevant actors database,to: determine a user associated with the request for the actorrecommendation; access a media consumption history data structure,associated with the user, to determine a first actor that the userprefers; determine a prominent role associated with the first actor,wherein the prominent role associated with the first actor is mostcommon role of the first actor; determine a plurality of actors,included in the relevant actors database, wherein prominent roleassociated with each actor of the plurality of actors matches theprominent role of the first actor; and recommend a second actor of theplurality of actors.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured, when recommending the second actor ofthe plurality of actors, to: determine a prominent genre associated withthe first actor, wherein the prominent genre associated with the firstactor is most common genre associated with the first actor; determine anactor of the plurality of actors, wherein prominent genre associatedwith the actor of the plurality of actors matches the prominent genreassociated with the first actor; and select the actor of the pluralityof actors as the second actor.
 20. The system of claim 18, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured, when recommending the secondactor of the plurality of actors, to: determine a prominent media assetindustry associated with the first actor, wherein the prominent mediaasset industry associated with the first actor is most common mediaasset industry associated with the first actor; determine an actor ofthe plurality of actors, wherein prominent media asset industryassociated with the actor of the plurality of actors matches theprominent media asset industry associated with the first actor; andselect the actor of the plurality of actors as the second actor.
 21. Thesystem of claim 18, wherein the control circuitry is configured, whendetermining the prominent role associated with the first actor, to:determine a first media asset in which the first actor appears; retrievea first credit list associated with the first media asset, wherein thefirst credit lists all actors appearing in the first media asset;determine a first position of the first actor in the first credit listand a total number of actors in the first credit list; compute a firstrank percentage of the first actor based on the first position of thefirst actor in the first credit list and the total number of actors inthe first credit list; determine a second media asset in which the firstactor appears; retrieve a second credit list associated with the secondmedia asset, wherein the second credit lists all actors appearing in thesecond media asset; determine a second position of the first actor inthe second credit list and a total number of actors in the second creditlist; compute a second rank percentage of the first actor based on thesecond position of the first actor in the second credit list and thetotal number of actors in the second credit list; compute, based on thefirst rank percentage and the second rank percentage, an average rankpercentage of the first actor; retrieve a role probability distributionwherein the role probability distribution provides probabilities ofvarious roles in media assets; determine a first role associated withthe role probability distribution that has a cumulative probabilityrange that includes the average rank percentage of the first actor; andselect the first role as the prominent role. 22.-51. (canceled)